Leveraging New Age Technology to Overcome MACRA Challenges – MACRA Monday

The following is a guest blog post by Dr. David A. Goldman, CEO and founder, Goldman Eye and Ophthalmology Team Lead, Anterior Segment at Modernizing Medicine.  This post is part of the MACRA Monday series of blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program (QPP) and related topics.

MACRA and the Quality Payment Program (QPP) were implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve healthcare by focusing on the quality of care provided to patients. There are two paths under the QPP: the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) track which covers most clinicians, and the Advanced Alternate Payment Models (APMs) track which applies to providers who have taken on some risk related to patient outcomes (Medicare Shared Savings 2,3 and Next Gen ACO participants for example).

MACRA and MIPS are intended to advance quality based care by implementing outcome-based payment adjustments. Providers will be measured across a number of different performance categories and will be paid on a curve. By 2022, physicians who outperform their peers may receive up to a 9 percent positive payment adjustment on their Medicare reimbursements based on their performance in 2020. Those who report poor performance may receive up to a 9 percent negative payment adjustment on their Medicare reimbursements in 2022.

Specialtyspecific Measures & Bonus Points

As previously mentioned, if you perform better than your peers when it comes to MIPS, you can substantially increase your Medicare reimbursements. Conversely, reporting a score below the performance threshold could prevent you from receiving a positive payment adjustment on your Medicare reimbursements, and not reporting on MIPS could cause you to be penalized.

Some MIPS categories will be the same across all specialties such as Advancing Care Information and Improvement Activities, whereas others can be geared towards a specialty, like Quality. Quality accounts for 60 percent of your total MIPS score in 2017. As an Eligible Clinician (EC), you should select six measures, including one Outcome Measure or if an Outcome Measure is not available, a High Priority Measure. After your first Outcome or High Priority Measure, any additional ones you report will count towards your bonus points (up to six points). In addition, an EC can earn another six points by doing end-to-end reporting. More information on the measure specifications can be found here.

Under the Advancing Care Information (ACI) category, ECs have the option to earn 5 bonus points by being in active engagement with a specialized registry, which are typically specialty-specific. The third category of MIPS is called Improvement Activities (IAs) which has over 90 activities to choose from. ECs, regardless of specialty, can choose activities that apply to their practice size and way of practicing like expanded practice access and closing the referral loop. Depending on the IA selected, ECs can also earn a 10 point bonus under the ACI category.

How can we turn this change into an opportunity?

A major factor in succeeding in MIPS is the use of today’s latest technology. Innovative electronic health record (EHR) systems, which can collect and organize clinical data in a structured format, empower doctors to extract meaningful insights at the patient and population levels. Instead of relying on any one physician’s narrative assessment or unstructured data for a diagnosis or treatment, physicians who have access to an interoperable platform can reference relative findings from their peers while eliminating redundancies, automating communications and improving patient outcomes.

How Do You Track Your Performance

The answer is certainly not using pen and paper. Look for a certified EHR vendor that has technology which provides services and products that can track data in real time and provide analytics to show your progress and outcomes. You want MIPS intelligence directly built-in to your EHR system.

Modernizing Medicine offers a specialty-specific suite of products and services that gives physicians added support. modmed Ophthalmology™ helps ophthalmologists transition to MIPS by providing them with quality data and reporting capabilities with the products and services they provide. Included within the suite is the company’s flagship EHR system, EMA™. EMA provides functionality for automated quality data capture, population health registries, real patient engagement and analytical tools, plus the ability to submit MIPS right to CMS.

I have been utilizing EMA for the past few years and am also a team lead on Modernizing Medicine’s ophthalmology team. As a practicing ophthalmologist, I have gone through the process of spending countless hours documenting patient reporting following a long day in the office. Couple that with ensuring my compliance measures are in check – it adds up. Now, my measures are completed efficiently, accurately and securely, ready to be submitted to CMS at the end of my reporting period. I even led a webinar on the topic of MIPS, if you want to see it in action.

EHR System Checklist for MIPS

From my unique perspective of working for an EHR vendor and utilizing the certified technology in my practice, I’ve shared a few qualities to look for in an EHR to support your reporting needs:

  • 2014 / 2015 ONC Certified
  • Integrated MIPS intelligence
  • Built in Improvement Activities
  • Qualified MIPS Registry
  • Automated data capturing and reporting
  • Built-in, real-time analytics reporting for Quality, Resource Use, Advancing Care Information and Improvement Activities
  • A vendor with an all-in on solution, including the ability to submit MIPS right to CMS
  • Advisory services and consultation during MIPS transition and reporting

While there is much work to be done in terms of keeping up with and understanding today’s fast-paced healthcare landscape, one thing is for certain – the proper use of specialty-specific technology can help alleviate hours of extra work, stress and physician burnout. As noted above, there are certain aspects of MACRA that apply across all specialties, whereas others are specialty-specific and working with a vendor that can guide you along this MIPS journey can be crucial to your financial success.

David A. Goldman, M.D. is the Ophthalmology Team Lead, Anterior Segment at Modernizing Medicine and founder of Goldman Eye in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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