CMS to grant hardship relief for radiologists in the 2020 Merit-Based Incentive Program
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that it’s proving hardship relief to radiologists and other clinicians participating in the 2020 Merit-Based Incentive Program.
Providers who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic can now submit an Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Application outlining their challenges. If approved, this would reweight any or all performance categories for performance year 2020, the American College of Cardiology noted Thursday. Those seeking a reprieve must explain how the public health emergency has severely impacted their imaging practice.
ACC also noted that the federal government has added two new coronavirus-related improvement activities to the quality payment program. Rads and other docs can now obtain MIPS credit by participating in a COVID-19 clinical trial, or caring for patients suffering from the disease and submitting their related data for future studies.
The biggest potential impact from this announcement could be a reduction in the pool of MIPS money available for payout incentives, noted Sandy Coffta, VP of client services for Healthcare Administrative Partners.
“Practices who are struggling to meet the stricter 2020 MIPS requirements are likely to take advantage of this exception in order to avoid a penalty,” she told Radiology Business Friday. “If a significant number of low-performing physicians or groups apply for and receive this exception, incentive payouts in 2022 will be less than anticipated.”
The American College of Radiology also highlighted the CMS change in an alert to its members posted Thursday. You can find further details about hardship exception, including the application, on the Quality Payment Program website here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.