MIPS 2021—Quality: An Overview

This content is excerpted from EyeNet’s MIPS 2021; also see the Academy’s MIPS hub page.

Default weight in MIPS final score: 40% (down from 45% in 2020).

Performance period: Full calendar year.

Performance requirements: 

• Aim to report on at least six quality measures.
• At least one of the six measures should be an outcome measure (or, if no outcome measure is available to you, another type of high-priority measure).
• For each measure, you can score achievement points based on how your performance rate compares to a benchmark.
• You may also be able to score bonus points.

Collection types: You can:

• report via IRIS Registry–EHR in­tegration,
• report via manual entry of quality measure data into the IRIS Registry, and/or
• report via your EHR vendors.

Clinicians in small practices—but not large practices—can also report via Medicare Part B claims.

Of the four MIPS performance categories, quality can contribute the most to your MIPS final score. Its default weight is 40% of that score, meaning that it would contribute up to 40 points (i.e., a quality score of 100% contributes 40 points). However, under certain circumstances, CMS may reweight your performance categories. For example, quality’s weight can be increased to as high as 85% if you qualify for a promoting interoperability exception and if CMS is not able to score you on any cost measures.

Previous: What’s New With Cost

Next: MIPS 2021—Quality: Pick Your Collection Type 

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