CMS provides tool to determine physicians’ MIPS participation status

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is mailing letters alerting physicians and other health care professionals of their 2017 participation status for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). The agency is also offering an interactive tool on its Quality Payment Program website to determine if you should participate in 2017.

To determine your status, type your national provider identifier in the entry field of the tool. CMS will then tell you if you should participate in MIPS this year and where to find resources.

As a reminder, you are required to participate in MIPS in 2017 if you bill Medicare Part B more than $30,000 a year and see more than 100 Medicare patients a year. You must also be a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, or certified nurse practitioner.

If you are new to Medicare in 2017, you do not have to participate in MIPS. You may also be exempt if you qualify for one of the special rules for certain types of clinicians or are participating in an Advanced Alternative Payment Model. To learn more, review the MIPS participation fact sheet.

If you are not required to participate in the program in 2017, you can still participate voluntarily. This can give you good experience for when you are required to participate,  and you will not be subject to payment adjustments.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians