Reporting Something is Better than Nothing!
All eligible Medicare providers should report something before April 2, 2019 to attest for MIPS Performance Year 2018. Even if you don’t use an EHR, you can possibly avoid negative payment adjustment. Here’s how!
Since MIPS is not just for those who use an EHR, three of the four MIPS categories do not require an EHR. They are: “Improvement Activities“, “Quality“, and “Cost” categories.
To report your Improvement Activities (IAs) you should report data on one of these combinations of activities for any 90 day period within the performance year: 2 high-weighted activities; 1 high-weighted and 2 medium-weighted activities; at least 4 medium-weighted activities. Improvement Activities that can be reported on can be found here. An example of a common, easy, high-weighted IA is: Consultation of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program IA_PSPA_6.
The Cost category will be evaluated by CMS using Medicare claims data so there is nothing that you will have to do to report for this category, but if you are curious what CMS evaluates, you can check that out here.
To attest for the Quality category you must report data on at least 6 quality measures for the entire 12 month performance period, at least one should be an outcome measure if you do not have an outcome measure you can use a high priority measure. Although attesting to the Quality category for 2018 may be difficult unless you planned ahead, start now for 2019 possibly using claims, a certified registry, or a combination of both.
How to Attest..
If you still want to attest for 2018 and possibly avoid negative payment adjustments, you need to act fast! The attestation deadline is 1 week away. Here what you need to do:
- First check your 2018 participation status using your NPI at https://qpp.cms.gov/participation-lookup.
- If eligible, create an account to login qpp.cms.gov
- Review IA measures to select those you are performing for at least 90 days in 2018.
- Login and attest to your improvement activities measure data on qpp.cms.gov
If you are considering an EHR or need MIPS / MACRA assistance, feel free to Contact Us to see the options that we offer, you might not even have to change the way you document!