Reporting Your MACRA Improvement Activities with Certified EHR Technology
The Improvement Activities performance category within the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) reviews the types of activities you or your group chooses to engage in that improve your clinical practice. Examples include ongoing care coordination, clinician and patient shared decision making, regular implementation of patient safety practices, and expanding practice access. This category makes up 15 points toward your final MIPS score.
Under this performance category, you’ll be able to choose from many activities to demonstrate your performance. Certified health information technology (health IT) helps in a couple of ways. First, using a certified electronic health record (EHR) technology may help you with reporting your activities for any of the Improvement Activities you select. Second, for many of the categories, using certified health IT such as certified EHR technologies and patient portals may help you perform better. In fact, for several activities, using certified health IT can result in bonus points that are applied to your Advancing Care Information performance category score.
Reporting Methods
Eligible clinicians may submit their improvement activities by attestation via the CMS Quality Payment Program website, a qualified clinical data registry, a qualified registry, or when possible, from their certified EHR technology.
Certified Health IT Supports All Nine Improvement Activities Measures
Expanded Practice Access |
Telehealth solutions combined with certified health IT can provide a valuable tool for expanding practices into rural and underserved areas, providing access to professional medical treatment to these populations. |
Population Management |
Public health departments work hard to prevent epidemics and the spread of disease. Clinicians support public health by capturing information about patient conditions (diagnosis, labs, etc.) and may report this information electronically using a certified EHR technology. |
Care Coordination |
Certified EHR technologies can make it possible for doctors to electronically share records with other care facilities directly and through patient portals. |
Beneficiary Engagement |
Online patient portals can establish strong lines of communication with patients and their designated beneficiaries. Incorporating patient input from web and mobile devices (patient-generated health data) may better inform you about your patients’ complete health. |
Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
Certified health IT can play a critical role in promoting patient safety and helping to avoid medical errors. Data from certified EHR technology feeds clinical-decision support tools that can help clinicians make care decisions. Electronic clinical quality measures can help clinicians track the overall quality of care being delivered. Certified EHR technologies may help streamline data sharing with clinical data registries that use clinical data to choose the best courses of treatment. |
Participation in an APM |
Certified EHR technologies may include the reporting capabilities needed to participate in a MACRA alternative payment model (APM). |
Achieving Health Equity |
Enabling certified health information technologies, including patient portals and patient-generated health data, can enhance the quality care underserved communities receive. |
Integrating Behavioral and Mental Health |
Certified EHR technologies and health information exchange solutions are evolving to better capture and segment sensitive health information so that using certified health IT can better manage and coordinate care. |
Emergency Preparedness and Response |
Certified EHR technologies may provide emergency response personnel with access to information about medical conditions during an emergency and may soon be able to pass this information to hospitals when a patient is admitted, discharged, or transferred. |
To view the list of certified EHR technologies, visit https://chpl.healthit.gov.