To get an incentive in 2019, you must submit 90 days of data in 2017. Unfortunately, we have passed the cutoff for that final 90-day window, so it is no longer possible to aim for a 2019 incentive if you have not begun. The best you can aim for with your 2019 Medicare fee schedule is to avoid penalties by working toward the minimal requirement of 1 patient, 1 measure.

HOW DO I AIM FOR AN INCENTIVE UNDER MIPS?

Although the deadline has passed to aim for an incentive in 2019 as part of Year 1 of the program, you can begin now to aim for an incentive in 2020 as part of Year 2. To aim for an incentive, you will need to capture 90 days of data. In order to submit the best 90 day window of data, we recommend that you track the full calendar year, beginning on January 1, 2018.

Starting on January 1, 2018, you can begin tracking the measures you would like to work toward. If you haven’t decided what measures to work toward, that is the first step. Then using your EHR, you need to determine the documentation that is needed to support those measures. Luckily with CareCloud, we work with you to get that process underway.

In order to maximize your potential for an incentive, track more measures than you need. For example, if you track ten measures, you can then choose the six measures that demonstrate the best performance.

WHICH 90 DAYS OF DATA DO I SUBMIT?

The 90 days for submission is any consecutive 90 days, not necessarily a calendar quarter. This applies to both Year 1 and Year 2 of the program, although submitting 90 days of data is only a requirement for Year 2 of the program.

You must use the same reporting period for all measures you are reporting within each category (Quality, Advancing Care and Improvement Activities), but you can submit a different reporting period for each category. In other words, if I am pursuing the partial pace of 90 days, I can report from Jan 2017 to March 2017 for Quality measures, then I can report Oct 2017 to December 2017 for Advancing Care Information measures and I can report April 2017 to June 2017 for the Improvement Activities. This flexibility of reporting period can help practices aim for incentives with the best span 90 day span of data for each category.