Given recent changes to Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and an ongoing push for Medicare physician payment reform, the Texas Medical Association encourages member physicians who participate in MIPS to closely review their final scores for the 2022 performance year.
The American Medical Association recently announced it has received “alarming reports” of physicians who participate in MIPS facing financial penalties for the first time since the program's 2017 start.
Major changes to MIPS took effect in the 2022 performance year, which affects 2024 payments. They include a shift from automatic to application-based hardship exceptions due to COVID-19 and an increase in the weight of the cost performance category to 30% from 20%.
“To help us advocate for mitigating the penalties, we need to understand the scope and extent of them,” AMA wrote in a Sept. 28 email to national specialty societies and state medical associations.
AMA is pressing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to release more data. But the federal agency historically hasn’t released payment data until the following year, which in this case would be in mid-2024.
In the meantime, TMA urges MIPS-eligible physicians to review and confirm the accuracy of their 2022 final scores via the Quality Payment Program website.
If you feel comfortable, you can share your de-identified score and corresponding payment adjustment information with TMA’s Reimbursement Review and Resolution Service via secure file-drop.
Sharing this information will help inform TMA’s and AMA’s understanding of MIPS’ impact on physician payment in 2024 and organized medicine’s federal advocacy in support of Medicare physician payment reform.
TMA equips you with the information you need to help stop looming Medicare physician pay cuts. Get involved in this crucial advocacy effort with ready-made social media graphics and posts, sample letters to the editor, a sample op-ed, and an Action Alert to send directly to legislators by downloading the toolkit.
Last Updated On
October 16, 2023
Originally Published On
October 16, 2023
Emma Freer
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1383