Due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Texas physician practices, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has automatically applied a hardship exemption within the 2024 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance period to eligible clinicians in “designated” areas.
The extreme and uncontrollable circumstances (EUC) policy will apply in affected Texas counties as identified by federal public health emergency and disaster declarations. This means for eligible MIPS participants, CMS will reweight all four performance categories – cost, quality, promoting interoperability, and improvement activities – to 0% during the data submission period for the 2024 performance period, which runs from Jan. 2 to March 31, 2025.
“This will result in a score equal to the performance threshold, and they’ll receive a neutral payment adjustment for the 2026 MIPS payment year,” CMS officials said in an email announcement.
They also clarified, however, that if MIPS participants in Beryl-affected areas choose to submit data in two or more performance categories, they’ll be scored accordingly and receive a corresponding 2026 MIPS payment adjustment.
Check out this 2024 MIPS automatic EUC policy fact sheet for more information.
Last Updated On
August 19, 2024
Originally Published On
August 19, 2024
Amy Lynn Sorrel
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