MedPAC Discusses Next Steps for MIPS

During the October public meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Commissioners held a session to examine the future of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in which they discussed recommending that MIPS be repealed. During the session, commissioners discussed the complexities and administrative burden associated with implementing MIPS, with specific criticisms focused on measures and scoring concerns, as well as clinical practice improvement areas.   David Glass, MedPAC Principal Policy Analyst, outlined in greater detail the concerns with MIPS. The problem with the MIPS scoring system, he said, stems from the inability to measure clinician’s performance on an individual level. Also, he noted that clinicians can choose the six criteria areas that they wish to be measured in, making it easy to optimize an individual score and rendering the score less reliable. What Does This Mean It’s unclear how Congress would react if MedPAC were to recommend repealing or replacing MIPS. Congress is often hesitant to adopt on the Commission’s most ambitious priorities, and lawmakers may be hesitant to reopen discussions on MACRA, particularly given its widely bipartisan history. Similarly, provider organizations — many of whom appreciate the relative flexibility under MIPS — have made significant infrastructure investments to support the adoption of MIPS. While a MedPAC recommendation could foster changes to the program in the vein of ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs