CMS released details July 7 about the second-year performance results of the Quality Payment Program's Merit-based Incentive Payment System, which determined payment adjustments for clinicians in 2020.
Here are five notes on MIPS scores and payment adjustments from the 2018 performance year:
1. Most clinicians in MIPS — 98 percent — avoided a negative payment adjustment in 2018. A year earlier, 5 percent of clinicians received a negative payment adjustment.
2. Most clinicians — 84 percent — earned an "exceptional performance" designation, resulting in positive payment adjustments ranging from 0.2 percent to 1.68 percent.
3. About 13 percent of clinicians in MIPS received payment adjustments of 0 percent to 0.2 percent.
4. More than 356,000 clinicians participated in MIPS through Advanced Alternative Payment Models in 2018, a 15,000 clinician increase from a year earlier.
5. In 2018, 84 percent of small practices and 97 percent of rural practices earned a positive payment adjustment. In 2017, 74 percent of small practices and 93 percent of rural practices received a positive payment adjustment.