MIPS 2025: Leveling Up Without the Lecture

If you’re reading this, you already eat, breathe, and sleep MIPS. So, let’s skip the basics and jump straight into what’s changed for the 2025 performance year. Think of it as your MIPS cheat sheet—minus the fluff.

1. Quality (30% of Your Final Score)

Quality remains your biggest scoring factor, with 195 measures in play for 2025. CMS introduced seven new measures, retired 10, and tweaked 66 more.

• What’s New? Topics like diagnostic imaging, biomarker testing, and patient vaccination got fresh attention.
• What’s Out? Redundant measures (like #439 on colonoscopies) are gone.
• Heads-Up: You still need 75% completeness for at least one measure.

Pro Tip: Zero in on measures that showcase your strengths. Spreading yourself too thin can water down your overall score.

2. Cost (30% of Your Final Score)

CMS handles Cost using administrative claims data, and in 2025, six new episode-based cost measures will be introduced (hello, chronic kidney disease, prostate cancer, and respiratory infections). To keep things fair, benchmarks now hinge on median performance.

• Fresh Measures: They span acute and chronic care scenarios.
• Exclusions Exist: If a cost measure is severely flawed, it can be excluded—no harm, no foul.

Pro Tip: Look closely at cost measures that apply to your patient population. Tighter care coordination typically translates to lower costs (and a better score).

3. Promoting Interoperability (25% of Your Final Score)

You already share data and encourage patient engagement, so watch for the more minor changes this year. Clinical social workers are among those who can no longer coast on automatic reweighting.

• Keep It Valid: Submissions need performance data, attestations, CEHRT IDs, and date ranges.
• Third-Party Friendly: Got an intermediary? Hand them the reins with no penalty.

Pro Tip: Check that your EHR platform supports direct messaging and patient portals. Track your performance data regularly to quickly correct course.

4. Improvement Activities (15% of Your Final Score)

With 104 total activities, including two newbies focused on lung cancer screening and cardiovascular disease, you’ve got plenty of room to shine. CMS also simplified scoring by removing extra weight calculations.

• Less Means More: Small or rural practices only need to choose one activity to max this category.
• Purposeful Picks: Activities like “Save a Million Hearts” are designed to tackle public health concerns head-on.

Pro Tip: Choose activities that actually benefit your patients and make your practice stand out. This will earn you MIPS points and build a healthier patient base.

Other Noteworthy Tweaks

• MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs): Six new MVPs, which cater to specialties like gastroenterology and urology, automatically calculate population health measures.
• Smart Scoring: If you send multiple batches of data, CMS will use your latest valid submission, so even if you improve late in the game, you will still reap the rewards.
• Simpler System: Updated scoring methods mean fewer headaches (we hope).

Why 2025 MIPS Matters

Your performance in 2025 will echo through 2027 with a possible 9% swing in Medicare reimbursements. A little planning can mean the difference between a bonus or a penalty—and nobody wants to leave free money on the table.

How Chirpy Bird Can Help

When MIPS feels like a four-ring circus, Chirpy Bird, Inc. swoops in to streamline your approach.

• Personalized Strategy: Tailored solutions for EHR users, registry reporters, or any setup in between.
• Pay-As-You-Go Services: Get exactly the support you need—no long-term commitments.
• Penalty Prevention: Stay ahead of CMS MIPS deadlines, avoid pitfalls, and target meaningful incentives.

Time’s ticking on MIPS 2025. Contact Chirpy Bird, Inc. now, and let’s set you up for success. Ready to see your practice soar? We’re just a message away.

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