Proposed Policy, Payment, and Quality Provisions Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2021

Key proposals for 2021 performance year of the Quality Payment Program include:

• Beginning Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathways (MVPs) implementation in 2022 instead of 2021
• Increasing the performance threshold from 45 points for the 2020 performance year to 50 points for 2021 (10 points less than the 60-point threshold finalized for 2021 in the CY 2020 PFS Rule)
• Revising performance category weights for Quality (decreases from 45% to 40%) and Cost (increases from 15% to 20%)
• Removing the CMS Web Interface as a collection type and submission type for reporting MIPS quality measures beginning with the 2021 performance period
• Sunsetting the Alternative Payment Model (APM) Scoring Standard and allowing MIPS eligible clinicians in APMs the option to participate in MIPS and submit data at the individual, group, or APM Entity level.
• Updating third party intermediary approval criteria as well as remedial action and termination criteria

Source: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/proposed-policy-payment-and-quality-provisions-changes-medicare-physician-fee-schedule-calendar-year-4