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CMS Announces Relief
for Clinicians, Providers, Hospitals and Facilities Participating in Quality
Reporting Programs in Response to COVID-19
The Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS) is supporting clinicians on the front lines by
getting red tape out of the way so the healthcare delivery system can focus
on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) response. CMS is implementing
additional extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy exceptions and
extensions for upcoming quality measure reporting and data submission
deadlines for the following CMS programs:
CMS is granting exceptions
and extensions to assist health care providers and suppliers while they
direct their resources toward caring for their patients and ensuring the
health and safety of patients and staff. For those programs with data
submission deadlines in April and May 2020, submission of those data will be
optional based on the facility’s choice to report. In addition, no data
reflecting services provided January 1, 2020-June 30, 2020 will be used in
CMS’ calculations for the Medicare quality reporting and value-based
purchasing programs in order to reduce providers’ data collection and
reporting burden as they are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CMS recognizes that
quality measure reporting may not be reflective of performance for measures
such as cost, readmissions and patient experience during this time of
emergency and seeks to hold organizations harmless for data during this
period. CMS will continue to monitor the situation and adjust reporting
periods and submission deadlines accordingly. More detailed information about
changes to each of these quality reporting programs will be provided soon.
2019 MIPS Submission
Deadline Extended: Submit 2019 Data by April 30, 2020
The 2019 Merit-based
Incentive Payment System (MIPS) data submission deadline will be extended by
30 days to April 30,
2020. If you have already submitted MIPS data or if you
submit MIPS data by April 30, 2020, you will be scored and receive a MIPS
payment adjustment based on the data you submit. Many MIPS eligible
clinicians have performed very well in the MIPS program in previous years. If
you need to revise any data that has already been submitted you can still
make changes by logging into qpp.cms.gov by the new deadline.
2019 MIPS Automatic
Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Policy Update
MIPS eligible clinicians
who have not submitted any MIPS data by April 30, 2020 do not need to take
any additional action to qualify for the automatic extreme and uncontrollable
circumstances policy. These clinicians will be automatically identified
and receive a neutral payment adjustment for the 2021 MIPS payment year. All
four MIPS performance categories for these clinicians will be weighted at zero
percent, resulting in a score equal to the performance threshold, and a
neutral MIPS payment adjustment for the 2021 MIPS payment year. However, if a
MIPS eligible clinician submits data on two or more MIPS performance
categories, they will be scored and receive a 2021 MIPS payment adjustment
based on their 2019 MIPS final score.
CMS will continue
monitoring the developing COVID-19 situation and assess options to bring
additional relief to clinicians and their staff so they can focus on caring
for patients.
For More Information
Please reference the 2019 QPP Data Submission User Guide. CMS
also has up to date information about its programs and response to COVID-19
on the Current Emergencies page.
For Quality Payment
Program questions you can contact 1-866-288-8292, Monday through Friday, 8:00
AM-8:00 PM ET or by e-mail at: QPP@cms.hhs.gov.
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Saturday, March 28, 2020
CMS Announces Relief for Clinicians, Providers, Hospitals and Facilities Participating in Quality Reporting Programs in Response to COVID-19
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