Mid-Week MACRA Minute - Improvement Activities Tips n Tricks

Helping you put the MIPS pieces together each week!

Improvement Activities: Tips ‘n’ Tricks

We created a list of a few tips on the Improvement Activities performance category for 2017. Remember, the Improvement Activities category counts for 15% of your 2017 MIPS Performance score.

Tips ‘n’ Tricks:

The maximum score for the Improvement Activities (IA) category is 40.
Each Improvement Activity is weighted differently and the weight determines the points that you will receive for completing the activity:
- Medium—10 points (double score: 20 points)
- High—20 points (double score: 40 points)
Double scores are given to groups that are in small practices (groups with 15 or fewer MIPS eligible clinicians), in rural practices, or in practices in geographic health professional shortage areas (HPSAs), and non–patient-facing MIPS clinicians.
One medium weighted activity you may already be doing is ‘Annual registration with state’s PDMP (Physician Drug Monitoring Program)’. Many clinics are already doing this when they login to the PDMP to check a patients list of prescribed controlled substances.
Improvement Activities should be completed for ALL patients in your practice, not just Medicare patients.
The reporting period that you select to complete your Improvement Activities does not need to be the same reporting period as the Quality or Advancing Care Information categories. Each category can be reported for a different length of time and using different date ranges.
Some Activities/Measures appear in multiple categories in MIPS. One such example is:
- Closing the Referral Loop (Improvement Activity and Quality Measure): Implementation of use of specialist reports back to referring clinician or group to close referral loop
An EHR is NOT required for some of the Improvement Activities. A few examples of activities that do NOT require an EHR are:
- Annual registration in the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
- Consultation of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

For more details on the Improvement Activities category visit the QPP website at https://qpp.cms.gov/mips/improvement-activities or visit the MediSYS website at www.medisysinc.com.

Question? The Quality Payment Program Service Center can be reached at 1-866-288-8292 (TTY 1-877-715- 6222), Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM-8:00 PM Eastern Time or via email at [email protected].

Mid-Week MACRA Minute – Improvement Activities Tips n Tricks