Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Declares MIPS Registration Period for Group Reporting

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently declared that groups planning to utilize its Group Web Interface or administer the CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) must register to report performance data of 2017 for the MIPS (Merit-based Incentive Payment System).

Providers are very anxious for guidance on how to comply with requirements and regulations with the 1st MIPS reporting period underway and ignore the payment penalties similar to those assessed under the programs of meaningful use in the past.
Because of this recent announcement from CMS, it has been clarified that what is required of groups of eligible clinicians by utilizing the CMS Web Interface or administering CAHPS as part of MIPS reporting.
Although these eligible clinicians are needed to register in accordance with MIPS, whereas all other eligible clinicians are exempt.
For groups, the registration period required to register started on the day of April 1, 2017, and will extend through June 30, 2017.
Eligible clinicians engaging as a group get one payment adjustment for their performance.
Additionally, CMS made the distinction that groups engaging in a Shared Savings Program ACO don’t require registering or reporting MIPS data as they qualified as part of an APM (Advanced Alternative Payment Model).
The federal agency also clarified that merely groups of a certain size are capable to report by utilizing the CMS Web Interface.
CMS said, “For the year of 2017, only groups of 25 or more eligible clinicians that have registered can report through the CMS Web Interface. Groups that participate in MIPS via qualified registry, qualified clinical data registry, or electronic health record (EHR) data submission mechanisms don’t need to register. Only groups of 2 or more eligible clinicians that have registered can participate in the CAHPS for MIPS survey for 2017.”
CMS added, “If you require removing your registration for Web Interface submission because your group now has fewer than 25 eligible clinicians, you should ‘cancel’ your registration. If your group needs to administer the CAHPS for MIPS survey, your group will require making an election through the registration system.”
MIPS-eligible providers were also reminded by CMS that people and group participants don’t need to register for any other submission method.
Furthermore, the federal agency also declared it has automatically registered all groups for the CMS Web Interface for the 2017 performance period that have already registered for the group reporting under the PQRS (Physician Quality Reporting System) via the Group Practice Reporting Option (GPRO) Web Interface in case to ease the procedure for eligible providers.
Given the officials of CMS have repeatedly cited 2017 as transition year for providers adjusting to the new payment system, the federal agency seeks to help providers in adapting to MIPS and Advance APMs as part of the QPP (Quality Payment Program) as smoothly as possible.
Attempts were made by CMS to mitigate confusion and ease the transition to MIPS for eligible clinicians in a latest presentation at HIMSS17 given by MIPS Policy Developer Leader Molly MacHarris detailing how MIPS scoring will be measured for each performance category.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has included on its website information regarding how to register to use the CMS Web Interface in the year of 2017. CMS will also be hosting webinars in the near future, further explaining group reporting and registration for CMS Web Interface and CAHPS for MIPS Survey.