This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that physicians will have the option to opt out completely or partially from Medicare’s 2020 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program.

To opt out,  physicians will need to apply for a hardship exemption and indicate on the application that it is due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Individual clinicians and group practices have until December 31, 2020, to complete the hardship application.

On the application, you can request reweighting of one or more MIPS performance categories due to the current COVID-19 public health emergency. For example, you can indicate that you do not want to be scored on Cost and Quality and have your score calculated based on just Promoting Interoperability and Improvement Activities. Alternatively, practices can opt-out of all four performance categories and be held harmless from a 2022 payment adjustment.