MIPS Timeline and Eligibility – MACRA Monday

This post is part of the MACRA Monday series of blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.

In the MACRA final rule, the timeline for MIPS was largely the same. However, I think there was some confusion on the MIPS timeline. So, while this isn’t a change from the MACRA proposed rule, I thought it would be worth highlighting the MIPS timeline for those that will be participating in the MIPS part of MACRA.

This graphic is the most succinct illustration of the MIPS timeline I’ve seen:
mips-timeline

As a summary, data for MIPS will be collected during 2017. How much data needs to be collected depends on which “Pick Your Pace” option you choose (more details on this in a future post). You must submit your MIPS data by March 31st following the performance year. Then, the positive or negative payment adjustment will happen the year after. For example, the 2017 MIPS performance year will determine your Medicare adjustment that goes into effect in 2019.

There was a slight change in who is eligible for MIPS in the MACRA final rule that is going to have a big impact. First, let’s take a look at who is eligible for the MIPS program:
mips-elibility

As you’ll see, there isn’t really a change in which types of providers are eligible for MIPS. However, you do have to have $30,000 in Medicare Part B billing and 100 Medicare patients a year in order to be able to participate in MIPS. Currently this is done on a per provider basis. They’re still considering virtual groups in future years.

There are 3 exceptions for providers that aren’t eligible to participate in MIPS. The newly enrolled doctors and Advanced APMs participants is the same as it was in the final rule. However, the low-volume threshold exception now excludes you from participating in MIPS if you have less than $30,000 in Medicare Part B or see 100 or fewer Medicare Part B patients. That’s a change from the proposed rule.

Here’s the full outline of the 3 MIPS exemptions:
mips-exclusions

That’s a quick look at the MIPS Timeline and Eligibility from the MACRA final rule. Next week we’ll dive into the details for Pick Your Pace. That should help you make a determination for how your practice should approach MIPS in 2017.

Be sure to check out all of our MACRA Monday blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

4 Comments

  • Excellent synopsis, just the right amount of information to be easily digestible. Thank you.

  • Thanks Isabel! That’s our goal. Take thousands of pages of regulation and make it digestible and useful. We’ll keep doing what we can to help.

  • Great overview of the MIPS timeline. I have followed your writing on other topics, and respect your accuracy and your ability to take something complicated, and break it down into easily understandable pieces. I look forward to following every MACRA Monday blogpost! Thank you John!

  • Eldrina,
    Thanks for reading and for your very kind words. Glad you’ve found the posts useful. There’s so much more to cover. I’m sure we’ll be doing these for a while to come.

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