Every eligible clinician (EC) for the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP) can view their 2017 performance data and 2019 payment adjustments via their EIDM account. CMS has also provided a fact sheet to help EC understand their data.

The payment adjustment you will receive in 2019 is based on this final score. A positive, negative, or neutral payment adjustment will be applied to the Medicare payments for covered professional services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule in 2019.

For the 2017 reporting year, ECs can earn up to a four percent increase to their Medicare Part B payments in 2019. ECs who did not submit any data for 2017 will receive an automatic four percent payment reduction to their Medicare Part B payments in 2019.

According to CMS, 91 percent of ECs successfully participated in MIPS meaning the nine percent of ECs who did not participate must fund the positive payment adjustments for the other 91 percent. It is therefore very unlikely that ECs who participated in MIPS will receive a significant payment increase in 2019.

MIPS is budget neutral meaning that the money used to pay the bonus payments to high performing ECs, comes from the payment reductions levied against ECs who underperform relative to the other ECs. The highest performing ECs can earn additional bonus payments from a separate pool of money that is not subject to the budget neutrality requirement.