CMS reweighting MIPS 2020 cost performance category

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will reweight the cost performance category for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System from 15% to 0% for the 2020 performance period — which affects 2022 payments — due to the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency, and redistribute the 15% prescribed weight to another performance category or categories. 

“Our analysis of the underlying data for the 2020 performance year, in comparison to prior years’ data, shows that the volume of data available to calculate the scores for the cost measures has significantly decreased overall,” CMS said. “As a result, we do not believe we can reliably calculate scores for the cost measures that would adequately capture and reflect the performance of MIPS eligible clinicians.”

Because the cost performance category relies on administrative claims data, clinicians do not need to take any action, CMS said. For more on the Quality Payment Program, visit the QPP website.