MHA Today | January 6, 2021

Staff Contact: Brian Kinkade

Citing strength in the economy and better-than-expected fiscal 2021 general revenue collections, Gov. Parson released $127 million in funding for state program spending that previously was withheld. The amounts released include $70 million for the MO HealthNet Pharmacy program costs, $26 million for higher education, $3.9 million for Missouri Department of Mental Health Developmental Disability community programs, and $1.5 million for elementary and secondary education.

Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published resources to assist providers with understanding their 2021 payment adjustments, announced that the 2020 data submission period is open and provided updates to reflect the 2021 merit-based payment system. In August, each MIPS-eligible clinician received a 2019 MIPS final score and the subsequent 2021 payment adjustment. CMS published a fact sheet with details about how the payment adjustment was calculated.

CMS now is reminding providers to submit their 2020 data. Providers can submit the data in the portal until Wednesday, March 31. Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, providers also may apply for an extreme and uncontrollable circumstances exception for the 2020 reporting year. The deadline to submit the application has been extended to Monday, Feb. 1.

To prepare for the 2021 MIPS reporting and payment program, CMS provided resources with additional details.

• Quality
  • MIPS Quality Measures List
  • Medicare Part B Claims Measure Specifications and Supporting Documents (zip)
  • Clinical Quality Measure Specifications and Supporting Documents (zip)
  • CMS Web Interface Measure Specifications and Supporting Documents (zip)
  • QCDR Measure Specifications
  • Cross Cutting Quality Measures
  • Quality Benchmarks (zip)
• Promoting Interoperability
  • Promoting Interoperability Measure Specifications (zip)
• Improvement Activities
  • Improvement Activities Inventory (zip)
• Cost
  • Cost Measure Information Forms (zip)
  • Cost Measure Code Lists (zip)
  • MIPS Summary of Cost Measures

Staff Contact: Shawn Billings or Kelsey Hussey

 The Health Resources and Services Administration announced a funding opportunity for an Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program. The goal of the program is to expand the number of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, health service psychologists and/or social workers that provide mental health and SUD services in underserved community-based settings that integrate primary care, mental health and SUD services. Applications must be submitted by Wednesday, Feb. 24. A technical assistance webinar covering the ISTP is being held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13.

Staff Contact: Sherry Buschjost

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released an addendum to the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Specifications Manual version 14.0a, which is effective with encounters dated Jan. 1, 2021. A list of the changes is available in the release notes. The manual and associated release notes are available on QualityNet.