Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

If you’re game, consider the CAHPS Survey for MIPS as an add-on.

If you’re still trying to figure out how and what to report for your larger practice, CMS has a streamlined option to help you put your data out there.

For practices with 25 or more eligible clinicians planning to submit 12 months of MIPS data for 2017, CMS now allows you to report data via an online resource. The secure program called the CMS Web Interface lets “you eliminate the need to search for and select quality measures because you agree to report on all 15 Web Interface measures,” the Web Interface fact sheet says.

Can You Take Advantage of This?

Take a look at this breakdown of the criteria to determine if you can report your MIPS measures through the CMS Web Interface and how to proceed if you are eligible:

Step 1: Qualification

If you bill Medicare over $30,000 in payments a year and see more than 100 Medicare patients annually, then you are required to report measure under MACRA and your group is eligible.

Step 2: Single TIN

If your group utilizes a single Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and you have two or more eligible clinicians with at least one provider qualifying under MIPS and the providers’ National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) has been reassigned for Medicare billing to the group TIN, then you may be able to use the CMS Web Interface.

Remember: “MIPS eligible clinicians include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and groups that include such clinicians,” advises the fact sheet.

Step 3: Register

The registration period, which lets CMS know that you are submitting your data through the program, is open from April to June 2017. However, “if you are a part of an Accountable Care Organization, you do not need to register to report via the CMS Web interface,” the fact sheet notes. See the registration guide at: https://qpp.cms.gov/docs/QPP_Web_Interface_Registration_Guide.pdf.

Step 4: Sample of Beneficiaries for Reporting

You can report on a sample of your beneficiaries using “MIPS beneficiary assignment methodology,” CMS says. But if you have less than 248 beneficiaries to report data on, then you cannot use a sample and must send 100 percent of your information.

Step 5: Quality Measures

CMS recommends that you refer back to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) guidance, particularly on the specifics of each quality measure as you report through the Web Interface. Visit the QPP site at: https://qpp.cms.gov.

Step 6: Watch Your Progress Closely

If you determine while in the submission process that you don’t have enough data, you’ll need to find an alternative reporting method other than the CMS Web Interface. The other MIPS reporting methods can be found on the QPP website.

Step 7: Successful Submission

You can either manually enter your data or “upload into the CMS Web Interface via an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, which can be populated by Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT),” the CMS says. Success in the Web Interface program means:

• Report 12 months’ worth of data for the 15 Web Interface quality measures.
• Disclose 90 days or more of CEHRT data to meet the Advancing Care Information requirement.
• Report at least 90 days of Clinical Practice Improvement Activities via the Web Interface.

Reminder: The submission process doesn’t start until January 2018, but you must be registered under the CMS Web Interface program and have your 2017 data in check to be ready to go on day 1.

Tip: Though not required, if you want to “maximize” your performance and add bonus points to your MIPS composite score, CMS suggests you consider participating in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) for MIPS survey measures. It’s “supplemental” and you must elect the program when you register for the Web Interface program.

To review the CMS Web Interface fact sheet, visit https://qpp.cms.gov/docs/QPP_CMS_Web_Interface_Fact_Sheet.pdf.