MIPS delay is a definite maybe

Don't stop your quality payment program preparations. Even though CMS is considering "multiple approaches" to how - and when - it will launch the program, practices shouldn’t assume the agency will put the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) on hold.

 

The proposed Jan. 1, 2017, start date for MIPS reporting has health care providers and medical societies concerned that practices, particularly smaller ones, won't be ready.

 

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing about the rule July 13, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted that if CMS did not release the final rule until Nov. 1, providers would have only two months to prepare. What, he asked CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, was the agency doing to make sure the program started out “on the right foot?” (Hatch’s question starts at the 34:03 mark of the recording.)

 

The agency goal is that "every physician in the country needs to feel like they’re set up for success," and CMS is thinking about other ways to kick off the program, Slavitt replied. "We remain open to multiple approaches,” Slavitt said. “So some of the things that are on the table we’re considering include alternative start dates, looking at whether shorter periods could be used and finding other ways for physicians to get experience with the program before the impact of it really hits them," Slavitt said.