CMS Holds Physicians Harmless from MIPS Penalties During Pandemic

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will hold physicians harmless from up to 9% of Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) penalties due to the disruptions of the COVID-19 public health emergency on practices’ performance in 2020. The American Medical Association (AMA) advocated for the automatic relief from MIPS penalties and was pleased CMS made these changes.

The Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Hardship Exception policy will be automatically applied to all MIPS eligible clinicians who do not submit any MIPS data for the 2020 performance period and avoid a 2022 payment penalty. CMS is also reopening the hardship exception application for group practices, virtual groups, and alternative payment model entities who missed the previous 2020 deadline. The re-opened application deadline is March 31, 2021. Please note that groups and eligible clinicians who submit data in at least two MIPS categories will override the hardship exception and be eligible to earn a bonus from the exceptional performance bonus pool or potentially be subject to a penalty.

Click here to learn more about these changes.