Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

CMS offers new help to small practices.

With the pandemic still impacting policy reforms, you probably noticed that Medicare opted for very minor changes to its Quality Payment Program (QPP) for 2022. But you may want to take advantage of some recent guidance during this year of flexibilities — before the big changes are implemented in 2023 and beyond.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to tweak QPP guidance and extend deadlines. A few changes have already happened or are impending; however, the agency has updated its resources to help providers bridge any policy gaps. Take a look at these two new offerings:

1. A New SURS Newsletter

MACRA funded the QPP Small, Underserved, and Rural Support (SURS) initiative for only five years, so CMS ended the program on Feb. 15, despite an industry-wide outcry to renew it (see Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement, Vol. 48, No. 2).

On March 7, the agency announced that it would be providing alternative help to small practices by way of its QPP listserv and with new guidance on its QPP website, including webinars, tools, widgets, and more. Since nixing the SURS initiative, CMS has also added a link to sign up for the brand-new SURS monthly newsletter.

Resource: Find the assistance at https://qpp.cms.gov/resources/small-underserved-rural-practices.

2. An ‘Explore MVPs’ Webpage

As part of its Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) outreach, CMS has launched the “Explore MVPs” webpage. The site offers guidance on the seven finalized MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) available for reporting in performance year (PY) 2023.

CMS is transitioning from traditional MIPS to the MVPs starting next year, putting the onus on participants’ specialties to make quality reporting more meaningful and equitable. “The MVP framework aims to align and connect measures and activities across the quality, cost, and improvement activities performance categories of MIPS for different specialties, clinical conditions, or episodes of care,” an agency alert says.

The Explore MVPs webpage provides guidance on the seven MVPs, which includes downloadable toolkits to help MIPS-eligible clinicians understand the reporting requirements and standards.

CMS intends to expand MVPs in future rulemaking and add more specialties to its list, the alert says.

Resource: Check out the Explore MVPs webpage at https://qpp.cms.gov/mips/explore-mips-value-pathways.