P3Care Digs Into Improvement Activities Changes for MIPS 2022

MIPS was established under the Quality Payment Program (QPP) for Medicare Part B healthcare providers. Its purpose is to ensure they get compensated based on their performance.

Each year, there are changes in the rules, measures, and requirements for each category of MIPS. Let's see what MIPS 2022 has in store.

Changes in MIPS 2022 Data Reporting

We can look forward to several changes in each performance category. But for today, we will be taking a look at the changes in the Improvement Activities category of MIPS.

Improvement Activities 2022

CMS has updated the improvement activities list for 2022 reporting by adding seven new activities and making changes to fifteen of the currently-existing ones.

Many changes suggest improvements in health equity, so there are six topped-out measures from the IA inventory along with the changes mentioned before. 

The Final Rule

This year, CMS will have the authority to suspend activities that:

• Are outdated and do not need to be continued

• Are detrimental to patients and should not be continued

In such cases, CMS will let both clinicians and the public know of such a change, for instance, if the activity needs to be modified or topped out.

Now, let's take a look at the activities we'll be saying goodbye to and learn about the new ones.

Improvement Activities Getting Removed from MIPS 2022

These are the activities/MIPS Quality measures removed from the MIPS 2022 evaluation.

IA_ BE_13: Assessing patient care experiences through surveys, advisory councils, and\or other mechanisms.

Objective

This activity requires clinicians to gather feedback from specific patient groups/populations. They must be at higher risk, either because of social or health factors, which will allow clinicians to make improvements while keeping their unique needs at the forefront.

IA_PSPA_11: Participation in CAHPS or Other Supplemental Questionnaires

Objective

This activity requires patient participation in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (CAHPS) or other questionnaires such as Cultural Competence, etc.

The aim here is to collect standard data on the experiences of patients and their satisfaction, which will help make healthcare more patient-centered.

IA_BE_17: Using tools to help in Patient Self-Management

Objective

This activity helps patients use tools that they might need for self-management. It is key to improving patient engagement, as it makes the tool that helps with autonomy available for them. It leads to an increase in positive health outcomes, and patients can adhere to the treatment better.

IA_BE_18: Provide Peer-Led Support for Self-Management

Objective

This activity creates opportunities for patients and helps them participate in support groups or self-management. It contributes to better patient engagement, adherence to medical advice, and health outcomes.

IA_BE_20: Execute Condition-Specific Chronic Disease Self-Management Support Programs

Objective

In this activity, clinicians need to provide patients with self-management training pertaining to chronic conditions. They need to help them with coaching or link the patients to available community programs that teach them these things, which will help them manage their medical regimen.

IA_BE_21: Enhance Practices that Disseminate Appropriate Self-Management Materials

Objective

It is for improvement in the patients' ability of self-management, for which they will get materials according to their literacy level and in a language they understand. The objective of this activity is to make sure that all patients learn from the self-management educational materials. Keep in mind that some groups or populations are not excluded systemically from learning opportunities.

New Activities Added to Improvement Activities in MIPS 2022

The details of these activities are still to be uploaded, but we can see which ones will be medium or high weightage.

Medium-level Activities

• IA_AHE_9: Put Food Insecurity and Nutrition Risk Identification and Treatment Procedures in place

• IA_BMH_11: Implementation of a Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) Approach to Clinical Practice

• IA_ERP_4: Enact a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Plan

• IA_ERP_5: Implementation of a Laboratory Preparedness Plan

• IA_PSPA_33: Application of the CDC's Training for Healthcare Providers on Lyme Disease

High-Level Activities

• IA_AHE_8: Create and Implement an Anti-Racism Plan

• IA_BMH_12: Promoting Clinician Well-Being

A few years ago, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) overruled the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). Since then, CMS has provided another payment model to healthcare providers. It acts as a participation track for all the providers throughout their performance period. Afterward, they get their MIPS payment adjustments. The adjustment depends upon the MIPS score they get after their evaluation in the performance period. After the successful completion of the merit-based incentive payment system, we are now in the 7th performance year for MIPS reporting.

This time, MIPS 2023 PY will set scoring for clinicians’ 2025 Medicare Part B payments. CMS has not revised the four quality categories and their proportions for the final MIPS score determination. It implies that providers have the same four categories with major additions and removals in each category’s reporting measures.

Just for quick memorization, these four categories are quality, cost, promoting interoperability, and improvement activities. Again the quality and cost categories have equivalent contributions in final scoring i.e. 30%. The remaining two weights are 25% and 15% respectively.

So, get ready for another performance-based evaluation. You must hit the MIPS 2023 payment adjustment minimum threshold which is 75 points this time. There is no additional payment for exceptional performance throughout. However, the penalty will be -7% if any provider is not able to get enough points to stay on the safe side. Overall, CMS is intended to upgrade healthcare for all patients, making the US the best state for its fine healthcare facilities. 

Conclusion

What changes that eligible MIPS 2022 clinicians can expect in this program, we have a brief gist of that in this article. The easiest way is to consult your Qualified Registry and get started on an effective strategy after the MIPS 2021 data submission.

Read more: What Happens When I Choose Not to Report Data for MIPS 2021?