As we approach the last 90 days of 2023, clinicians and groups have an opportunity to make meaningful improvements that will ultimately affect their overall MIPS performance score. The 2023 minimum threshold to avoid a negative adjustment is 75 total points. One way to boost your overall score is to focus on the sometimes overlooked Promoting Interoperability (PI) and Improvement Activities (IA) categories.
The PI and IA categories together count for 40% of your total MIPS score. To reach the minimum threshold, reporting these categories is a must. Note: Both categories must be reported for at least 90 consecutive days during the performance year, so the last day to start (if you haven’t already) is October 3, 2023. Let’s review how to get the most points of these categories.
Promoting Interoperability
For this reporting year, clinicians who report Promoting Interoperability must use a CEHRT that is certified to the 2015 Edition Cures Update. The CEHRT must be in place by the first day of the performance period, but only needs to be certified by the last day of the performance period. As in previous years, certain clinician types and special statuses will automatically have their PI category reweighted (note: there were some changes to who qualifies in 2023 so always check for updates). You also have until January 2, 2024 to submit a Hardship Exception application if you are experiencing any of the qualifying circumstances.
Clinicians should review the PI category requirements as soon as possible. While most measures will be a simple yes/no attestation or numerators/denominators pulled from your EHR, some measures (like the Security Risk Analysis) require additional work. Remember, you must report all measures or you’ll receive zero points in this category. Some measures have exclusions, which can be claimed if they don’t apply to your practice. If claiming an exclusion, that measure’s points are reweighted to another PI measure.
Improvement Activities
Improvement Activities can be a relatively painless way to earn additional points for your final score. There are 40 maximum points in this category and activities are either medium- or high-weighted. For most clinicians, medium-weighted measures earn 10 points and high-weighted earn 20 points each (unless you have a special status, then those points are doubled). There are some caveats to reporting these measures so read through the measure – some have limitations on how many years they can be reported, some require a longer reporting period than 90 days, and at least 50% of clinicians in a group must report the same activity. When you attest to an activity, you don’t need to submit your documentation, but you will have to keep it for six years in case you’re audited by CMS.
Are you ready to optimize your MIPS reporting with Alpha II?
Alpha II provides electronic, end-to-end MIPS reporting through our ONC-certified CEHRT, and is integrated with your MicroMD software. Their proprietary algorithm assesses 10 million combinations of measures to maximize your MIPS score.
