For many radiology practices, the idea of a positive payment adjustment for participation in the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP) has been lost. Several factors have combined over the past few years to change the goal for radiology practices – it is now ‘penalty avoidance’ rather than a reward for reporting quality metrics. As we outlined in our recent review of the Medicare 2024 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule, the QPP requirements for successful participation are going to become even stricter.
Categories:
MIPS,
Quality Payment Program,
MIPS participation,
radiology,
QPP,
quality measures
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) rules for 2024, including provisions for the Quality Payment Program (QPP). While not a done deal until the final rule is issued toward the end of the year, the Proposed Rule gives an indication of where CMS is headed with regard to payment policy. In recent history, even the Final Rule isn’t final because Congress has had to intervene to stave off significant reimbursement reductions. Here are the highlights of the 2024 Proposed Rule.
Categories:
medicare,
medicare reimbursement,
radiology,
QPP,
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
Today's Quality Payment Program (QPP) began in 2006 as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). It was a voluntary program that would earn participants a bonus payment of 2% of their prior-year Medicare reimbursements. Beginning with performance year 2013 (for payments in 2015) a penalty was imposed on those physicians who did not successfully report quality data. The 2016 performance year saw the initiation of the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VM) that allowed for upward, downward, or neutral payment adjustments in 2018 based on both the quality and cost of care delivery. In the first year the VM was applied, physicians with low cost and high quality earned an additional 9.78% over the basic Medicare fee schedule while the potential negative adjustment for not reporting, or not successfully reporting, was 6%. There was a lot of incentive to participate in the program at as high a level as possible!
Categories:
MIPS,
MIPS participation,
radiology,
QPP
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) press release announcing the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule for 2023 highlights expanded access to behavioral health services, Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), cancer screening, and dental care. Of these areas, cancer screening could be important to radiology practices, but the news was not good – CMS declined to include CT colonography coverage while it expanded coverage for traditional colonoscopy. The MPFS regulates the Medicare fee schedule payment provisions as well as the Quality Payment Program (QPP).
Categories:
radiology reimbursement,
cms,
MPFS,
MIPS,
MIPS participation,
radiology,
QPP
Keeping abreast of the various healthcare rules and regulations from federal and state authorities can sometimes be overwhelming for a practice’s management. Here is a summary of some of the most important regulatory issues to be aware of for next year, along with a few payment policy decisions that are not governmental. The links will take you to our recent articles and other sources that probe each topic in more depth.
Categories:
cms,
MPFS,
low dose CT,
CPT codes,
radiology,
QPP,
surprise billing
The Quality Payment Program (QPP) continues to be modified due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced some leeway for clinicians affected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Categories:
radiology reimbursement,
cms,
QPP,
COVID-19
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the final set of rules that will govern the Medicare payment system for the coming year, thereby affirming the drastic cut in radiology reimbursement for 2021 that was proposed earlier this year. There were few surprises in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule that were not contained in the proposed rule, other than a slight improvement in the fee schedule conversion factor and a change to the QPP Performance Threshold.
Categories:
radiology reimbursement,
cms,
MPFS,
radiology,
QPP
Quality Payment Program (QPP) participants can now obtain information about whether their practice will receive a positive, negative, or neutral Medicare fee schedule adjustment in 2021 based on the 2019 data they submitted. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that clinicians who participated in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in 2019 can access their performance feedback by logging in to the Quality Payment Program website.
Categories:
radiology reimbursement,
physician reimbursement,
cms,
Quality Payment Program,
QPP,
quality measures
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they have adjusted certain aspects of the Quality Payment Program (QPP) in response the Public Health Emergency (PHE) caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. CMS has extended the deadline for reporting 2019 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) data and has relaxed the criteria for avoiding a penalty in 2021 based on submission of 2019 data.
Categories:
cms,
MIPS,
Quality Payment Program,
MIPS participation,
QPP
Participation in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) means that you always have several years’ information in play at one time. The score you earned from submitting 2018 data will now be impacting your Medicare reimbursement in 2020; you have just completed your 2019 performance and it’s time to submit your data; and finally, you now have to begin your 2020 performance year.
Categories:
cms,
MIPS,
Quality Payment Program,
MIPS participation,
QPP,
quality measures
