By The American Medical Association

Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance feedback, including final scores and payment adjustment information, for the 2020 performance period is now available for review on the Quality Payment Program website.

The 2020 MIPS scores will determine whether a physician will receive an incentive, neutral payment adjustment or a penalty that is applied to the Medicare paid amount for covered professional services furnished in 2022. In response to AMA advocacy, the CMS applied an automatic Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances hardship exception and reweighted the Cost Performance Category to zero in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 final score should reflect these COVID-19 flexibilities.

MIPS eligible physicians are encouraged to review their MIPS feedback closely. If a physician believes there is an error, CMS allows appeals through a targeted review process that is open until Oct. 1, 2021. Examples of targeted review circumstances include:

• Data was submitted under the wrong Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) or National Provider Identifier (NPI).
• Eligibility and special status issues (e.g., the physician falls below the low-volume threshold and shouldn't receive a payment adjustment).
• Performance categories weren’t automatically reweighted even though the physician qualifies for reweighting due to extreme and uncontrollable circumstances.

CMS released additional information, including FAQs, at their resource library.