Source: American Academy of Family Physicians
Some family physicians who are in group practices that participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) need to be aware of a registration alert.
If your practice is participating in MIPS and intends to utilize the CMS Web Interface and/or plans to administer a patient survey dubbed the “Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) for MIPS” – then this message is for you.
These practice groups must register before they are able to access the interface or the survey.
Don’t put this off; the window of opportunity for registration began on April 1 and ends on Friday, June 30. For more details, refer to CMS’ 2017 registration guide.
Readers who need more information about CMS’ Enterprise Identity Management accounts, which are required for registration, can grab all the important details from Family Practice Management’s April 6 Getting Paid Blog post, titled “Time ticking for MIPS registration.”
Note that no registration is required if a physician is reporting as an individual or if a practice group is using another means of reporting.
In other MIPS-related news, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) — one of several organizations that provide recognition or certification for patient-centered medical home (PCMH) practices — recently announced that it has launched a revamped PCMH recognition program.
It was two years ago that the NCQA put out a public appeal for suggestions on how the program could be redesigned to make it more meaningful to physicians.
The NCQA recently provided an overview on the redesign project. In brief, it offers practices more flexibility, personalized service with NCQA staff, an opportunity for continuous improvement, and alignment with changes in health care.
Why should this matter to family physicians? And what’s the connection to MIPS?
Physicians who participate in MIPS, one pathway of the CMS Quality Payment Program, should be aware that recognition or certification as a PCMH allows a physician to automatically receive full credit in the MIPS improvement activities category.
So family physicians who have bypassed PCMH recognition or certification in the past due to the complexity of the process or for other reasons now have a good incentive to take another look!