Should you worry?
while therapists weren’t considered “eligible professionals” (EPs) under Meaningful Use, they are EPs under MIPS - and its umbrella program, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization ACT (MACRA). Providers in private can only participate in MIPS if they meet the specific criteria.
Why participation makes sense?
If a practice or provider meets ALL the thresholds above, then participation is non-negotiable. For the rest, as US healthcare transitions to VBC, gearing up to measure and improve quality while reducing cost is quite intuitive.
However, here are a few more reasons to embrace this change.
More Dollars
Opportunity to earn a bonus of 7%
Prepare for future
Program reach may be expanded in future
Group rules
If reporting as a group, individual qualification is inconsequential
Align with VBC
Evolve into a metric-driven value based organization
What Technology vendors need to do?
Most therapists billing to Medicare (Group practices and individual ECs) will need capabilities in their EHRs to excel at MIPS.
The rest, may have similar expectations from their software vendors as the program reach extends in the next few years.
Enable measurement and
reporting of outcomes
Objectify Quality using QRDA, CQL, Quality dashboards
Exchange of patient
information
Enable Interoperability through CCDA, DIRECT, FHIR
Foster patient
engagement
Drive satisfaction through Patient Portal, Secure messaging, Education
Drive better
clinical decisions
Using Clinical Decision Support Systems, alerts, provider education