Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

With costs on the rise, every penny counts. That includes money your practice receives from positive participation in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) — and the 2022 performance year/2024 payment year final scores are now ready for preview.

Details: The MIPS Final Score Preview offers providers a first look at important 2022 performance data before the feedback is finalized and 2024 payment adjustments are made, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reminds in an alert.

The MIPS 2022 Final Score Preview period runs through August 2023 and “displays data associated with the highest final score that could be attributed to the clinician, group or APM Entity, and all the data required to calculate final scores,” CMS explains. Those include: performance category scores and weighting; any bonus points; measures’ data; and activity scores. Patient information and payment adjustments are not part of the Final Score Preview.

For both traditional MIPS and the Alternative Payment Model Performance Pathway (APP), only clinicians or their authorized staff can access the information for the participating practices, virtual groups, or APM entities, the alert indicates. You can check out the Final Score Preview by logging into the Quality Payment Program (QPP) portal and acknowledging that you know the score can change, CMS says.

Don’t forget: Though you may find errors, that’s not the end of the process. After the preview period ends and CMS makes payment adjustments, the agency offers MIPS clinicians the option to request a targeted review. “Please note that issues raised during the MIPS Final Score Preview period aren’t part of targeted review,” warns QPP guidance. “The targeted review process allows clinicians to request a review of their MIPS payment adjustment calculation and will be available once we release MIPS payment adjustment information.”

Targeted review is usually open for 60 days after payment adjustments are finalized.

Resource: Check your MIPS 2022 data at https://qpp.cms.gov/login.