Ask Congress to act now to address the MIPS Adjustment to Part B Drugs!

BACKGROUND:

Under MACRA, most physicians will initially fall under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program for the Medicare payments they receive for physician services.
Based on aggregate scores that physicians receive each year under MIPS they may receive either a bonus or a penalty in their reimbursement. The range of these bonuses or penalties is intended to be +/- 4%.
Due to the way legislative language is written, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be applying the MIPS payment adjustment to Part B drugs (those administered in office) in addition to physician services.
This is a departure from CMS' previous policy for applying payment adjustments only to physician services for the historic quality programs, upon which MIPS is based.
Applying the MIPS adjustment to Part B drugs distorts the intent of the MIPS adjustment and unfairly amplifies the bonus or penalty in specialties that administer high-cost drugs bringing their range to +/- 13-22% for oncology.
Congressional intervention is necessary to address the improper application of the adjustment.

CURRENT STATUS:

In October, bipartisan efforts in the House and the Senate sent letters to the Department of Health and Human Services urging the exclusion of separately payable Part B drugs from the application of the MIPS adjustment in order to better achieve the overarching goals of MACRA and to apply the MIPS adjustments in a fair and consistent manner.
The final rule released this month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not address the concerns of these letters.
Recently ASCO and several other specialty societies sent a joint letter to Chairmen Hatch, Walden and Brady and Ranking Members Wyden, Pallone and Neal asking for their legislative help on this issue.

ALERT CONGRESS TODAY:

Ask your lawmaker to intervene this year with a technical correction to ensure the Merit-based Incentive Payment (MIPS) score adjustment is not applied to Part B drug payments.