Due to ongoing concerns with the impact the Change Healthcare cybersecurity attack is having on physician practices, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the 2023 MIPS data submission deadline until April 15. Notably, this attack on our nation’s health care infrastructure coincides with the 2023 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) data submission window, which opened on January 2 and originally was scheduled to close on April 1.  

Many physician practices are experiencing dire consequences due to the February 21, 2024, cyberattack on Change Healthcare, which is the largest processor of claims in the country. Many physician practices are seeing their payments for services dwindle while simultaneously having to implement labor-intensive workarounds to submit new claims. 

The American Medical Association (AMA) urged CMS to provide relief from MIPS penalties for physicians and other eligible clinicians impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack. While this is a welcome extension, AMA is concerned the timeline is insufficient. Therefore, AMA will continue to push CMS to automatically apply the Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances (EUC) hardship exception to all MIPS eligible clinicians for the 2023 performance period or reopen the hardship exception application window to allow eligible clinicians to claim an exception due to the Change Healthcare cyberattack. 

AMA, the California Medical Association (CMA) and other health care groups remain deeply concerned about the particularly negative impact the continued outage is having on small, rural, independent practices, as well as those practices who care for the underserved, as they are the most resource strapped, run on the thinnest margins, and employ the fewest administrative staff to navigate the currently dysfunctional system. 

CMA continues to closely monitor this situation and will provide updates as they become available.