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  • MIPS 2021—What’s New With Cost

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

    Like last year, ophthalmologists are only likely to receive a score for the cost performance category if they perform cataract surgery. However, there have been a few changes to cost, including the following.

    An increased role for cost. The biggest change to the cost performance category involves its steadily increasing contri­bution to your MIPS final score. It’s default weight in your MIPS final score was 15% last year, is 20% in 2021, and is slated to be 30% in 2022. (Quality’s default weight, meanwhile, has been falling.)

    Cataract surgery and telehealth services. Because of the increased use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has updated the specifications of cost measures, includ­ing the one for cataract surgery, to include the codes and costs associated with some telehealth services.

    CMS continues to develop new cost measures that it might start using in future performance years. Last year, CMS field tested two episode-based cost measures that could be relevant to ophthalmology—one for diabetes and another for melanoma resection. Whenever a potential measure might impact ophthalmologists, the Academy will monitor the measure’s development and alert CMS to any problems.

    Previous: What’s New With Improvement Activities

    Next: Quality: An Overview

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