| Linden Healthcare Consulting

It’s STILL Not Too Late to Avoid the MIPS Payment Cut for 2018 Performance

2018 may be over, but there are still opportunities to report 2018 MIPS performance data for activities that took place during the performance year. If you’re new to MIPS (or just want a refresher!), please refer to the article here for an overview and explanation of how the MIPS program and scoring works. For more details about the score necessary to avoid a payment cut for 2018 performance, see last month’s article here. Below are reporting mechanisms that are still available to MIPS-eligible clinicians and groups to report activities from 2018 and avoid a payment cut in 2020: Attestation or [...]

By Lindsay Horst|2022-11-29T09:17:59-05:00January 24th, 2019|Medicare Quality Payment Program (APMs/MIPS), MIPS|

It’s Not Too Late to Avoid the MIPS Payment Cut

With less than a month left in the 2018 MIPS performance year, it may feel like it’s too late to start working on MIPS. However, there is still a lot providers and practices can do to meet the minimum threshold score and avoid a negative payment adjustment in 2020. If you’re new to MIPS (or just want a refresher!), please refer to the article here for an overview and explanation of how the MIPS program and scoring works. It’s important to remember that payment adjustments under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) are based on an aggregate score across four [...]

By Lindsay Horst|2022-11-16T17:45:38-05:00December 3rd, 2018|Medicare Quality Payment Program (APMs/MIPS), MIPS|

Positioning Yourself for Success Under Value-Based Reimbursement

Whether it’s a payer-specific program, a voluntary initiative or recognition, or a government incentive program, the push to move from pay-for-volume to pay-for-performance is everywhere in healthcare. Most would agree that incentivizing quality is vital to improving our healthcare system, but there is little agreement on the best way to measure and reward quality (and even less standardization…), resulting in a patchwork of overlapping and conflicting programs. Some providers choose to do the bare minimum under quality programs just to avoid payment cuts, but for many specialties and organizations, that approach may leave significant money on the table. To make [...]

By Lindsay Horst|2019-03-20T14:36:38-04:00October 18th, 2018|Value-Based Reimbursement|

MACRA, QPP, APMs, and MIPS: The Basics of CMS’s Incentive Program Alphabet Soup

You’ve likely heard or are familiar with the acronyms related to CMS’s current quality incentive program: MACRA, QPP, APMs, and MIPS, among others. Although the program has been in place for over a year, CMS’s phased approach to participation allowed providers to do very little in 2017 to avoid a payment cut. As the participation thresholds increase in 2018 and beyond, it is important to understand the basics of this program and what, if anything, you need to do to avoid a Medicare payment cut. MACRA MACRA stands for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. It is [...]

By Lindsay Horst|2022-11-29T09:18:36-05:00August 30th, 2018|Medicare Quality Payment Program (APMs/MIPS)|