The 2017 Final Rule is here with details about MIPS and the Quality Payment Program
Medicare made the full text of the Final Rule available on Friday, October 14th for the Quality Payment Program, providing operational details for MIPS and Advanced Alternative Payment Models. This program was signed into existence by Congress in April 2015 as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
2017 has been reformatted as a “Transition Year” to gently phase in the QPP. The final rule is good news overall.
- With the published “Pick Your Pace” options, there should be a solid way for every provider to avoid a penalty in the first year.
- In the first year of MIPS, compared to 2016, the revenue at risk drops from 9% to 4% while eliminating pass-fail cliff-type thresholds that make PQRS, VM, and EHR awkward.
- The combined program is dramatically less difficult than the combination of the three previous programs. If you are already participating, you will be familiar with most of the dynamics of the new program.
Though the final rule is good news, don’t let it lull you into a sense of complacency. There is still a lot to accomplish in a short period of time.
- IF YOU DO NOTHING… You will be penalized the full 4%.
- It is time to start talking about, understanding, and setting your QPP strategy for 2017 and 2018.
- If you are not yet participating in Quality Reporting, it is time to start. You need to identify and fix measures with low-performance rates.
- You should start to understand the cost of care metrics and to learn how to improve them.
- There are still problems in the fundamental design of the QPP program and you should engage to fix them before the 2018 performance year is upon us.
Watch our recorded webinar to learn what you need to know to get started with the Merit-Based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs) under the new Quality Payment Program.