Improvement Activities for MIPS in P3 Health Care Solutions

One of the four categories that make up the Merit-based Incentive Payment System that is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is referred to as the MIPS Improvement Activities Category (MIPS). MIPS is a component of the CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP), in which eligible providers are expected to participate during the year 2021 in order to avoid having a negative impact on the physician fee payment for the year 2023. MIPS was introduced in 2017. Beginning on October 3, 2021, marks the beginning of the final continuous 90-day period in which an improvement activity can be performed.

This blog article gives an overview of P3 health care’s ability to support eligible clinicians and groups that are engaging in MIPS, as well as a summary of the MIPS Improvement Activities Category.

Who is responsible for finishing the MIPS Improvement Activities?

Everyone who is qualified for the MIPS program and bills Medicare Part B. Learn more about the qualifying requirements for providers under the discussion subject “MIPS in Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine.”

When it comes to group reporting, a group or virtual group can attest to an activity if at least fifty percent of the clinicians in the group or virtual group perform the same activity during any continuous ninety-day period (or as specified in the activity description) in the same performance year. This is the minimum requirement for a group or virtual group to be considered an attesting group.

What are the criteria for reporting that must be met under the category of Improvement Activities?
To earn a total of 40 points, participants must complete one of the following combinations of activities (each activity must be performed for 90 continuous days or more during 2020)

  • Two activities with a high two activities with a high weighting,
  • One activity with a high weighting and two activities with a medium weighting,
  • Four activities with a medium weighting

What’s New with the Activities for Making Improvements in 2021?

  • For the performance year (PY) 2021, Medicare will maintain the high-weighted COVID-19 Clinical Data Reporting with or without Clinical Trial (IA ERP 3) improvement activity.
  • Both “Engagement of Patient through Implementation of Improvements in Patient Portal” (IA BE 4) and “Comprehensive Eye Exams” (IA AHE 7) were two of Medicare’s pre-existing improvement activities that were updated.
  • CMS Partner in Patients Hospital Engagement Network (IA CC 5) was one of the activities that Medicare eliminated since it is no longer relevant.

What are the steps I need to take to attest for Improvement Activities?

  • Provided that the individual, clinician, or group uses the same and constant identifier(s) for all performance categories and all data submissions, MIPS-eligible clinicians, groups, and virtual groups are allowed to submit data for Improvement Activities using multiple data submission types. This includes virtual groups.
  • To vouch for an Improvement Activity, you need to respond “yes” to each question about an Improvement Activity that has been completed for at least 90 days. An eligible clinician who reports as a group has the ability to attest to an Improvement Activity provided that at least one member of the group participated in the Improvement Activity for a period of ninety consecutive days in 2021.
  • The documents that must be submitted as evidence of participation in an Improvement Activity differ from one activity to the next and are included on the list of improvement activities for the year 2020. As evidence of their attestation, eligible providers are required to store their proof for a period of six years in the event that CMS conducts an audit. Later on during the performance period, you will be able to access the 2021 Data Validation Criteria. You can quickly locate the MIPS Data Validation Criteria on the Quality Payment Program Resource Library by searching for “Validation” without applying any filters to your search.