Several federal and state agencies have updated their reporting or reimbursement policies to provide flexibility during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). 

CMS: Physicians may opt out of MIPS for 2020 

Physicians may opt-out completely or partially from the 2020 Merit-based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) by completing a hardship exemption application and indicating it is due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Policy (CMS) announced. CMS said in late June that individual clinicians and group practices have until Dec. 31, 2020, to complete the hardship application. 

These actions align with recommendations from the AMA to create flexible reporting options in 2020 with the option to reweight any or all of the MIPS performance categories. The flexibilities should assist with allowing practices to focus their attention on caring for patients during the pandemic and reduce administrative burden. 

Quality Payment Program

CMS is implementing multiple flexibilities across multiple performance years for the Quality Payment Program (QPP) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A recently updated list of these flexibilities is online here.

Indiana Medicaid

The Indiana Health Coverage Programs (IHCP) recently announced that it will keep all flexibilities adopted for telehealth/telemedicine during the pandemic in place through the end of the PHE. The agency also said it will provide advance notice of any changes to that policy.