CMS News Center

Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool: Identify Disparities in Chronic Disease

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services now offers the Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool, an interactive website that can help providers identify and visualize disparities among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. The tool displays health-related measures from Medicare claims by sex, age, dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, race, ethnicity, state, and county. Providers can use the tool to target interventions for populations with special health needs:

• Visualize prevention quality indicators, disease prevalence, readmissions, and cost at the state or county level.
• Compare measures by race, ethnicity, dual-eligibility, age, and sex.
• Analyze geographic needs, including rural and urban counties and territories.

For more information, visit www.cms.gov/about-cms/agency-information/omh/omh-mapping-medicare-disparities.html

Wound Care Providers To Receive MIPS Update Letters

Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are currently in the process of reviewing claims and letting practices know which clinicians need to take part in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), an important part of the new Quality Payment Program (QPP). Throughout the month of May, those providers who have not yet received their letters providing the participation status of each MIPS clinician associated with their taxpayer identification number from their Medicare Administrative Contractors that process their Medicare Part B claims will do so. 

According to CMS, clinicians should participate in MIPS in the 2017 transition year if they:

• bill more than $30,000 in Medicare Part B-allowed charges per year and
• provide care for more than 100 Part B-enrolled Medicare beneficiaries per year.

The QPP intends to shift reimbursement from the volume of services provided toward a payment system that rewards clinicians for their overall work in delivering the best care for patients. It replaces the sustainable-growth-rate formula and streamlines the “legacy programs” — Physician Quality Reporting System, Value-Based Payment Modifier, and Medicare Electronic Health Records Incentive Program. During this first year of the program, CMS is committed to working with providers to streamline the process as much as possible, officials said. The goal is to further reduce burdensome requirements so that providers can deliver the best possible care to patients. For more information, visit https://qpp.cms.gov.

Submit Notice of Intent to Apply To 2018 Medicare Shared Savings Program

Effective May 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is accepting notices of intent to apply (NOIA) for the Jan. 1, 2018, start date of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Providers who intend to apply to the MSSP and/or Medicare Accountable Care Organization Track 1+ Model must submit an NOIA no later than May 31 at noon (eastern time).

An NOIA submission does not bind an organization to submit an application, officials said; however, providers must submit an NOIA to be eligible to apply. For more information, visit www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/sharedsavingsprogram/downloads/ssp-noi-memo.pdf

New QPP Resources Available

Officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released three new resources for the Quality Payment Program to help clinicians successfully participate in the first year of the program:

• The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) participation fact sheet discusses who is eligible to participate in MIPS and how clinicians might be able to participate voluntarily in the program.
• The MIPS improvement activities fact sheet helps with choosing and submitting improvement activities, reporting criteria, and the scoring system.
• The listing of 2017 CMS-approved qualified registries shares information on those qualified registries that will be able to report data for the “quality,” “advancing care information,” and “improvement activities performance categories” in 2017.

For More Information, visit qpp.cms.gov, email QPP@cms.hhs.gov, or call 866-288-8292.