Introduction:
BillingParadise hosts free webinars for healthcare professionals that offer a deep insight into the ever changing healthcare landscape. A webinar on MACRA & MIPS – Top 10 to know for 2017 forward and who will be impacted was held recently on 31st May 2017 by our multi-certified healthcare experts Kim Dues, CPC, CRC, AAPC, ICD-10-CM Certified (Regional Director of Quality Assurance, Client Services, BillingParadise Inc, Texas) and Holly Cassano, CPC, CRC, AAPC, ICD-10-CM Certified (Regional Directors of RCM, Risk Adjustment and Quality & Client Services, BillingParadise Inc, Florida). They walked viewers through the ABCs of MACRA & MIPS.
Key takeaways of the webinar:
Tips on avoiding negative payment adjustments- The importance of monitoring EOBs and analyzing dunning messages at the bottom of the EOB
- How to review the Quality and Resource Use report (QRUR)
- Monitor and collect PQRS measures through EHRs
- The requirements for MIPS participation
- Data reporting options for MACRA
- Important timelines to prepare and attest for the new regulations
Brief summary:
This webinar was conducted to enable healthcare professionals get a handle on the latest regulatory change to hit the industry. Kim Dues, a CPC, CRC, ICD-10 discusses about MACRA MIPS. She talks about her vast experience of helping providers in PQRS extrapolation. Njii.com is a certified portal that offers helpful review of measures before providers submit to Medicare, Kim Dues said. MACRA expert, Kim Dues, also elaborates on BillingParadise’s MACRA support for Eligible Provider (EP’s) and provides details about how BillingParadise can help out with submitting provider specific PQRS codes, and the useful MIPS calculator.
Holly Cassano, a CPC, CRC ICD-10-CM, a healthcare subject matter expert who’s gained vast media coverage for her unique and intelligent views on healthcare trends and evolving changes also offered handy tips.
She noted that CMS estimates that over 710,000 providers will be affected by the Quality Payment Program (QPP), which actually launches the first performance year for QPP. She clarified that not all providers will be subject to the coming changes and close to half of US physicians are not familiar with MACRA/MIPS initiatives. She added that many services billed under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule MPFS will be impacted.
Expert guidance:
Holly Cassano spoke about MIPS scores. “Physician’s MIPS score represents his or her comparative performance in four categories. The four categories are as follows:
50% based on Quality Measures- 25% based on Meaningful Use of EHR
- 15% Clinical Quality Improvement Activities
- 10% Costs
Kim Dues said, “Medicare will send you a letter that states your practice and providers have been identified as being included in MIPS. If you are using PQRS measures, and closely monitoring your EOBs you will find messages that state there are deleted PQRS measures and they will need to be updated with active measures. Kim stated: “There’s a treasure trove of information within the EOB that should be reviewed weekly.”
Quick tip for small medical practices:
Holly Cassano provided a tip for small medical practices. She emphasized the importance of reviewing the Quality and Resource Use report (QRUR). Small practices that do not have this report can download it from the MAC website, she shared. She advised medical practices to determine their MIPS eligibility and document all encounters in their EHRs.
She added that 2017 is the year to review the requirements for MIPS and also the exemption criteria to avoid a 4% negative payment adjustment in 2019.
Kim Dues, stressed on the importance of collecting information from EHRs. She also shared an interesting anecdote on finding a “backdoor” to allow the PQRS information to collect from a client’s EHR in preparation for yearly submission.
You can also view the video recording of the webinar here.
LRRA: 30% of the webinar attendees walked away with not just in-depth MACRA/MIPS information and insights, but also a free Lost Revenue Recovery Audit worth $2000. The LRRA report analyses and measures 19 vital revenue cycle KPIs. To know more about this audit click here.
