To form a virtual group for the 2021 MIPS performance year, an election must be submitted to CMS via e-mail by December 31, 2020 (11:59 p.m. Eastern Time) Solo practitioners and groups with 10 or fewer clinicians (including at least one MIPS eligible clinician) who want to participate in MIPS as a virtual group for the 2021 performance year must submit their election to CMS. For more information visit: Virtual Group Tool-kit    

The Promoting Interoperability Hardship Exception Application for PY 2020 is currently open and will close December 31, 2020. This application deadline hasn't been extended for PY 2020. About Exception Applications - QPP (cms.gov)

Due to COVID-19, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama expanded coverage for telehealth services effective March 1, 2020. This expansion of services will expire on December 31, 2020. See our Telehealth page for more detailed information about eligible providers and services.

Effective Jan. 1, 2021, certain UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage and commercial plans will allow certain Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS)-eligible telehealth services when billed with the member’s home as an originating site. For important information on changes to UnitedHealthcare’s commercial Telehealth and Telemedicine Reimbursement Policy, UnitedHealthcare Commercial Reimbursement Policy Update Bulletin: October. Questions? For additional telehealth resources, visit UHCprovider.com/telehealth.

2020 MIPS performance year data submission window opens

Alabama Medicaid Promoting Interoperability (PI), formerly known as the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program Alabama’s State Level Registry (SLR) will begin accepting Program Year 2020 applications on December 1, 2020. All Applications must be submitted by February 28, 2021. The link to the SLR is: https://alslr.thinkhts.com/.

Deadline for CMS to receive 2020 claims for the Quality performance category. Claims must be received by CMS within 60 days of the end of the performance period. Deadline dates vary to submit claims to the MACs . Check with the MACs for more specific instructions.

Care Compare is a transparency initiative that displays MIPS performance data on a public website; clinicians and groups may use the currently open preview period (until March 25th) to ensure the accuracy of 2019 MIPS performance information and submit a targeted review of any inaccuracies before the data goes live in 2021. For more information on Care Compare please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Compare-DAC

2020 MIPS performance year data submission window closes.

As an additional COVID-19 flexibility, CMS is applying the MIPS automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances (EUC) policy to all MIPS eligible clinicians for the 2020 performance period. Additionally, CMS has reopened the deadline to complete an extreme and uncontrollable circumstances application for PY 2020. The previous deadline was Monday, February 1, 2021. However, the NEW deadline is March 31, 2021 at 8:00 PM ET. Note that applications received between now and March 31, 2021 won’t override...
Read Full Article

Going forward from April 5, 2021, health information networks and exchanges, EHR vendors and health care providers will be subject to information blocking. What is information blocking? Information blocking can occur in many forms. Physicians can experience info blocking when trying to access patient records from other providers, connecting their EHR systems to local health information exchanges, migrating from one EHR to another, and linking their EHRs with a clinical data registry. Read more at: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2021-01/information-blocking-part-1.pdf...
Read Full Article

UPDATED: May 14, 2021 - Last Day to Resubmit Mississippi Division of Medicaid is requesting that all applications be submitted by May 14th to allow the staff time to review and render payments. The State Level Registry (SLR) will shutdown on May 28th to officially close Program Year 2020.  All applications that were not completely submitted will be withdrawn from the SLR. We are moving rather quickly to prepare for Program Year 2021 which starts June...
Read Full Article