CMS Grants Delay in QPP Reporting for 2019 Data Submission
In a Press Release on Sunday, March 22, 2020, CMS announced that the deadline for providers and groups (including facilities) for reporting 2019 data in the Quality Payment Program (QPP), which includes MIPS, is delayed from March 31, 2020, until April 30, 2020. They go further, and note the following:
“Deadline extended from March 31, 2020 to April 30, 2020.
MIPS eligible clinicians who have not submitted any MIPS data by April 30, 2020 will qualify for the automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy and will receive a neutral payment adjustment for the 2021 MIPS payment year. …”
If you have not submitted QPP data yet, you will not be required to. As a result of not sending data in, your providers will receive a neutral payment adjustment for 2021. However, if you think you have qualified for a positive adjustment, the only way to get credit for that is to report by the April 30, 2020 deadline or you will default to the neutral payment adjustment.
In the guidance, CMS notes a large number of other programs will have similar delays in data submission for 2019, including ASC quality data and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). CMS cited the ‘extreme and uncontrollable’ provisions for relief (similar to those of past natural disasters) as the main driver for the delay and, in this case, the current COVID-19 public health emergency.
Importantly, CMS also noted that for 2020 data (which normally would not be due until approximately the end of March, 2021), “CMS is evaluating options for providing relief around participation and data submission for 2020.”
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