MIPS 2022: CMS Requirements What’s at Stake? Get Yourself Ready for the Challenges This Year

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS 2022) has become more complex as compared to past years. There’s a lot at stake this year for medical practitioners. This year has also brought a lot of challenges and difficult paths to success. Read on to learn about all these in detail.

What Are the CMS Requirements for MIPS 2022?

MIPS 2022 has become more difficult and complex than in the past few years. Well, according to the law, the structure of the program is that 1 out of almost every 2 clinicians will be penalized up to 9% each year. There are so many elements of the program that carry forward from 2021, which includes the requirements to submit a full year’s worth of data to meet the requirements for completeness and the requirements for the Promoting Interoperability (PI) and Improvement Activities categories. Besides this, it is important for medical practitioners to have knowledge of the MIPS Reporting changes and the reporting period, and to earn enough points to avoid penalties.

Important Changes in MIPS 2022 

There are various key points that needs to be more focused on this year which include the following:

1. To avoid the penalty the healthcare providers must earn at least 75 points out of the possible 100 MIPS points.

The increase in the minimum threshold to avoid the penalty from 60 points in 2021 has become 75 points in MIPS 2022, representing the fifth straight year of threshold increases. 

2. There are some significant changes to the Quality Measures 

In an effort for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to achieve their goals through the MIPS program. CMS has actively changed and updated the measure definitions. In MIPS 2022 changes are made to the Quality Measures which means you don’t need to be as interested in the Quality measures of the past year. The measures that were used in the past for QPP MIPS may or may not exist. 

3. Improvement Activities category is no longer an option and now it is more relevant than before

Because of the 75-point threshold this year to avoid the penalty in MIPS 2022 program. The clinicians must need to maximize their MIPS points that are earned in every category including Improvement Activities (IA). Some additional activities are added to make it more important than ever to have a strategy for meeting the requirements of IA. 

What Are the Benefits of Having the MIPS Reporting Partner?

In this framework, it can still be challenging to know what to do to earn MIPS 2022 points, optimize your score, and protect your reimbursements, given the nuances and the misunderstood aspects of the MIPS program. MIPS Reporting partner and the reporting method are the only things that you can control. Given the stakes, it’s crucial to choose a MIPS expert who can advise you on how to maximize MIPS points and safeguard payments.

MIPS 2022 Brings A lot of Challenges 

This year brings a lot of new challenges and obstacles to becoming successful in MIPS as the performance threshold has increased up to 75 points. There are also some additional changes and challenges to be aware of as you navigate the fact that this year in the program the bonus is ending and the main focus is on cost, as well as a +/-9 % range of potential adjustments.

We’re looking at a challenging path in the MIPS program this year when the COVID-19 pandemic’s unpleasant aftereffects are added. Even though it may seem daunting, this blog post is an excellent place to start and should put your mind at ease.

We’ll look at changes and challenges in the next section.

We’ll get into reasons to be optimistic later on, as well as strategies for improving your odds of success.  

MIPS 2022: The Hardest Year till Now 

Before getting into the specific challenges. Let’s talk about the bad news before it. 2022 is the hardest year in the MIPS program than ever. 

Below are the major difficulties in MIPS.

• End-to-End Electronic Reporting and High-Priority Measure Bonuses are gone in the year 2022, so, then now you will not be able to rely on those to affect your score. 
• MIPS 2022 is the final year for the Exceptional Performance Bonus, and now the threshold is 89 points 
• All Medicare eligible clinicians can participate in MIPS 
• The cost category was reweighted to 0% for the Performance Years 2020 and 2021, so its influence in 2022 will be significant. The cost now accounts for 30% of your score.
• The Performance Threshold has been increased to 75 points; to avoid a penalty, you must obtain at least 75 points. If you can’t reach or surpass this mark, you can lessen your punishment by getting as close to 75 points as you can.
• Finally, the Potential Adjustment range for 2022 is +-9%.

MIPS 2022 Program Will Never Be Easier 

The difficulty of MIPS was intended to rise as the program went on.

Hence, even though 2022 will undoubtedly be the most difficult year ever, it will never be simpler than it is now.

The MIPS program will probably get more difficult in the upcoming years in the following ways:

• In the coming years, we can expect more episode cost measure 
• We will likely see increased promoting interoperability and Patient Access requirements in the coming year 
• Your annual changes will still be significantly influenced by cost. Although we have not yet seen a full year where cost significantly affected payments, this will likely change in the upcoming years.
• In 2023, MIPS Value Paths (MVP) will be in use. For multi-specialty organizations, this will be a significant adjustment and a considerable rise in difficulty.
• After 2022, the 3-point threshold for Quality Performance measurements will be eliminated. For now, you aren’t allowed to submit any measures with a score of less than 3. After this year, this floor will be demolished.
• In the upcoming years, the Data Completeness Threshold is probably going to rise. It is realistic to anticipate that this will increase to at least 80% from its current level of 70%.
• For MIPS groups, the Web Interface reporting technique will be discontinued after 2022. Complex groups using various EMRs will find it more difficult to compile quality statistics and report as a result of this.

END NOTE

In the 2022 MIPS program, there are so many challenges, and to get the positive payment adjustment and an exceptional performance bonus, the physicians need to participate and score well. QPP MIPS is here to help you with this. You will get excellent results. Consult us!