So this is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I have been working very closely with AC users on both Meaningful Use and MIPS for the past 11 years (MU stage 1 came out in 2011). A lot of you on this board have been to my in person seminars back in the day about MU and how to pass this with Amazing Charts. Ho here are my 2 cents on it all.
For the exclusions.. There are several exclusions that practices can apply for every year. Normally the 2 main ones are the Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances exemption and the Promoting Interoperability Exemption. The first can grant you an exemption for all of MIPS, the 2nd will exclude you from the PI category only.
In most cases, a practice has to apply for these exemptions every year (easily done from
www.qpp.cms.gov). The past couple years there has been some automatic exemptions, but I always stress to the clients I work with to apply anyway. This way it is on record that you applied for the exemption.
The COVID exemption was an example for last year. If you did not submit any data then you were granted an automatic exclusion under COVID. My one problem with this, is what happens if a practice get audited? Can you prove that your practice was impacted by COVID, and how? Expecially knowing that Medicare has access to your financials for that year. They know you were open, what type of office visits you had, and what was done. To me it just smells like a good trap (I have been through a lot of audits, maybe I am jaded).
Now, here is the good news. MIPS is actually EASIER than it has ever been. It is not as bad as MU was, and much more forgiving. There are 2 main areas that most Amazing Charts practices will need to focus on to get full credit for 2022, Quality and Improvement Activates. Improvement Activites are easy, those are just yes or no attestation questions that most people can do. There is a list of 100 activites, you need to fin 1 or 2 that you can say yes to. Do you have AC on the cloud? Great, you have 24/7 access to the medical record.. You are done. What about checking the state PDMP website for narcotics? Great.. Done.. they are that easy.
Quality is equally as easy, IF you have our new PopHealth interface. These are your day to day measures that you would be familiar with (things like tobacco screening, controlling high blood pressure, or A1c control, for example) Gone are the days where you have to jump through 1000 different hoops to get credit for a measure (Everyone remembers MU and all the teal buttons). Now, its as easy as adding some templates to the chart and going about your day. I have had a hand in designing all the workflows for these measures and my goal is to make them as easy as possible. I don't want you spending any more time than necessary on these items. in fact, once we have it set up, the provider will maybe spend 10-30 seconds completing the measure. Now there is a cost to PopHealth (not going to lie there), but its reasonable. Email me if you want more information.
The other 2 categories (PI and Cost) don't require any participation. The cost category is automatically calculated off of your superbills to Medicare, and the PI category (which includes eprescriging, patient portal, and direct messaging measures) has an exclusion what 99% of AC practices can claim an exclusion for (being a small practice).
Every practice I had worked with last year passed MIPS with flying colors, with most getting the exceptional bonus. The worst thing you can do is do nothing. Penalties are up to 9%. That is a big chunk off your Medicare payments. Like a lot of these companies, we do also offer a MIPS Success Service (for profit, again. being honest). I work with your practice on am quarterly basis, making sure you stay on track and can get the most our of the program. I also advise when to take exclusions, which are the best to claim, and make sure that each one is sumbitted successfully. I also help clients attest at the end of the year, and keep them updated on what is changing during the year. Is it an extra charge? Yes... But I think I am worth it. :-)
If anyone has any questions on the MIPS program, what we offer, or want to discuss their options to see if any of this is worth it for them, I would be happy to do a free, one time 1on1 consultation with anyone from this board. Just email me at mdabeck@harriscomputer.com and mention this post. We will set up some one on one time to review the MIPS program.
PS.. sorry for the long post.
