Cardiologists participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in 2020 didn’t exactly plan on providing care during a global pandemic. Fortunately, CMS has bent the rules a bit for 2020, providing assistance in the wake of COVID-19.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) summarized the latest on this topic on its website, noting that CMS will not use data collected during the first six months of 2020 when calculating Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs.
In addition, the ACC pointed out, cardiologists who have been hit especially hard by the pandemic can submit an Extreme & Uncontrollable Circumstances Application to reweigh “any or all of the MIPS performance categories” for 2020.
“Clinicians requesting relief will need to provide a justification of the impacts to their practice as a result of the public health emergency,” the ACC emphasized.
Another key detail for cardiologists to remember is that participating in the COVID-19 Clinical Trials improvement activity can earn MIPS-eligible clinicians 20 points, half of the 40 points needed to receive a maximum score in the MIPS Improvement Activities category. A letter from CMS dated April 28 outlines this option in detail.
Additional information from CMS about MIPS and COVID-19 is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.