News: MIPS submission deadline nearing, financial penalties loom

Providers who still have 2017 claims to submit for the quality performance category of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) need to submit them as soon as possible, CMS says. While submissions must be in the national Medicare claims data warehouse by March 1 in order to be analyzed, clinicians will be financially penalized if they fail to submit claims by March 31. 

MIPS includes four performance categories affecting providers’ Medicare payments:

• Quality
• Improvement activities
• Advancing care information
• Cost

For the transition year (2017), eligible clinicians have to submit data for the quality, improvement activities, and advancing care information performance categories, according to the CMS Fact Sheet.

Clinicians who already submitted quality performance data for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for 2017 can view their performance scores now through the data submission feature, according to CMS.

Editor’s note: To read about MIPS’ effect on providers’ reimbursement, click here. To read about the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) concerns about MIPS’ effectiveness, click here. To learn about the resources on the Quality Payment Program through CMS, click here. If you’d like to learn more about CDI and quality measures, take a look at the CDI and Quality Care Measures Boot Camp.