Written by Sarah Reiter, SVP Strategic Partnerships, Health eFilings

Given that MIPS is a points-based program, the goal is to earn as many points as possible to avoid this year’s 9% penalty and potentially even earn a positive payment adjustment. However, the law requires that 50% of all clinicians will be penalized each year and earning the 75 points necessary to avoid the penalty for the 2022 reporting period will be no easy feat. With over half of the reporting period already behind us, its imperative you act now so you don’t find yourself in position later in the year that you can’t recover from in terms of earning points.

With all the complexities and nuances of the program, its challenging to know what you can do to impact your score. Here are three critical considerations that provide guidance on ensuring you have the right MIPS strategy to optimize your ability to earn points for the 2022 reporting period.

1. The Quality Category, worth the most points, is the category on which to place focus. Because the Quality Category is worth anywhere from 30 to 85 points, focusing on this category throughout the year is critical. You are required to submit a full year’s worth of data so now is the time to ensure that you are capturing all relevant data so that it can be properly reported on within your submission.
   
   
2. There are stringent timeframe requirements for MIPS categories. Two of the active MIPS categories, Promoting Interoperability and Improvement Activities, have timeframe requirements where you must perform and document activities for a minimum of 90 continuous days. These are not easy categories in which to be successful so if you wait too long in the year you will find it impossible to put the right actions in place in order to complete the activities necessary to earn any of the points in these categories.
   
   
3. The reporting methodology you choose impacts the MIPS points you can earn. Not all reporting methodologies are the same and the reporting methodology you select has a significant impact on the points you could earn. Unless you select a reporting partner that will help you earn the most points available by leveraging technology to facilitate the ease, accuracy, and completeness of tracking and reporting, you risk leaving points on the table and significantly sub-optimizing your MIPS score. Reporting via a CEHRT, like Health eFilings, is the best approach because it optimizes the points that could be earned and therefore, maximizes Medicare reimbursements.

Health eFilings, Practice EHR’s MIPS partner, is a CEHRT and the national leader in automated MIPS reporting using cloud-based, ONC-certified software that fully automates the process and does all the work without requiring IT resources, administrative support or workflow changes. Health eFilings will save you significant time, be a turnkey submission process and maximize the financial upside by earning you the most MIPS points. And you can have peace of mind because Health eFilings has a 100% success rate with CMS accepting our electronic submissions on behalf of our clients.

About Health eFilings:

Health eFilings, a CEHRT, is the national leader in automated MIPS compliance and quality data analytics. Its services drive improved patient outcomes, optimized quality measures and stronger financial results for healthcare practices. Their proprietary cloud-based ONC certified software is significantly more efficient and effective than any registry as it does all the work to extract, calculate, benchmark, format and electronically submit MIPS data to CMS so clients avoid significant penalties and earn maximum reimbursements. And, you can have peace of mind knowing you are working with the best partner because CMS has accepted 100% of Health eFilings’ submissions. Learn more here: https://healthefilings.com/hef-practice-ehr