(a) General. Beginning with the 2023 MIPS payment year, the APM Performance Pathway is a MIPS scoring methodology available to MIPS eligible clinicians identified on the Participation List or Affiliated Practitioner List of an APM Entity participating in a MIPS APM.
(b) Criteria for MIPS APMs. MIPS APMs are those in which:
(1) APM Entities participate in the APM under an agreement with CMS or through a law or regulation; and
(2) The APM bases payment on quality measures and cost/utilization.
(c) MIPS performance category scoring in the APM Performance Pathway -
(1) Quality. Except as provided in paragraphs (c)(1)(i) and (ii) of this section, the quality performance category score is calculated for a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity group in accordance with § 414.1380(b)(1) based on the APM Performance Pathway quality measure set established by CMS through rulemaking for a MIPS payment year.
(i) Each submitted measure that does not have a benchmark or meet the case minimum requirement is excluded from the MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity group's total measure achievement points and total available measure achievement points.
(ii) Any measure that is identified as topped out is not subject to the scoring cap described at § 414.1380(b)(1)(iv).
(2) Cost. The cost performance category weight is zero percent for MIPS eligible clinicians who are scored through the APM Performance Pathway.
(3) Improvement activities. The improvement activities performance category score is calculated for a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity group in accordance with § 414.1380(b)(3) based on the activities required by the MIPS APM that are included in the MIPS final inventory of improvement activities described in § 414.1355(a) (excluding any such activities that the MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity group does not perform). MIPS eligible clinicians, groups, or APM Entities may report additional improvement activities in accordance with § 414.1360.
(4) Promoting interoperability. The promoting interoperability performance category will be scored for the MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity as described in § 414.1375.
(d) APM Performance Pathway performance category weights -
(1) Performance category weights. Subject to paragraph (d)(2) of this section, the performance category weights used to calculate the final score for a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity reporting through the APM performance Pathway are:
(i) Quality: 50 percent.
(ii) Cost: 0 percent.
(iii) Improvement Activities: 20 percent.
(iv) Promoting Interoperability: 30 percent.
(2) Reweighting MIPS performance categories. If CMS determines, in accordance with § 414.1380(c)(2), that a different scoring weight should be assigned to the quality or promoting interoperability performance category, CMS will redistribute the performance category weights as follows:
(i) If CMS reweights the quality performance category to 0 percent: Promoting Interoperability performance category is reweighted to 75 percent, and Improvement Activities performance category is reweighted to 25 percent.
(ii) If CMS reweights the Promoting Interoperability performance category to 0 percent: Quality performance category is reweighted to 75 percent, and Improvement Activities performance category is reweighted to 25 percent.
(e) Final score. The final score is calculated for a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or APM Entity in accordance with § 414.1380(c).
[85 FR 85031, Dec. 28, 2020]