MIPS in 2024 - What's New

For the performance year 2024, MIPS has undergone several significant changes. These updates reflect CMS's ongoing efforts to streamline the program and improve healthcare quality. Here are the key updates:

1. Performance Threshold: The threshold to avoid a penalty in MIPS for 2024 remains at 75 points, as opposed to the initially proposed increase to 82 points. This decision is a notable relief for clinicians, ensuring the threshold doesn't increase the administrative burden.

2. Quality Category:

- No changes have been made to the measure scoring rules for large practices, while the 3-point floor for small practices remains.

- Three new ophthalmology-specific measures have been added.

- The data completeness threshold is increased to 75% for performance years 2024 – 2026.

- The removal of 11 MIPS quality measures and modifications to 59 existing measures, with the addition of 13 new quality measures.

3. Cost Category:

- The calculation of the Cost category improvement score has been updated to be calculated at the category level.

- Five new episode-based cost measures have been added, including Depression, Emergency Medicine, Heart Failure, Low Back Pain, and Psychoses and Related Conditions.

- The Simple Pneumonia with Hospitalization measure has been removed due to coding changes.

4. Improvement Activities:

- The list of improvement activities has been updated, including five new activities and the removal of three existing activities.

5. Promoting Interoperability (PI):

- The performance period for the PI Category will increase from a minimum of 90 continuous days to a minimum of 180 continuous days within the calendar year.

- Measure changes include adjustments to the Query of Prescription Drug Monitoring Measure and a new requirement for the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guides Measure.

6. MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs):

- There are 16 MVPs available for 2024, including five new MVPs focusing on areas like Women’s Health, Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders, Infectious Disorders, Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, and Musculoskeletal Care.

7. Alternative Payment Model (APM) Incentive Payment:

- The APM Incentive Payment of 3.5% ended in 2023. Starting in 2024, qualifying APM participants will receive a higher payment rate than non-APM participants.

These updates highlight CMS's commitment to evolving the MIPS program to better serve healthcare providers and patients. Navigating these changes can be complex, and Premier MIPS Consulting is here to guide you through this process to optimize your MIPS strategy for 2024. Contact us at 803-205-2544.