COVID-19 Clinical Trial Participation Helps Providers Earn MIPS Credit

by  Wyn Staheli, Director of Content - innoviHealth
Apr 22nd, 2020

All healthcare providers who are currently participating in the MIPS portion of Medicare’s Quality Payment Program may want to participate in the new COVID-19 Clinical Trials improvement activity. According to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, “...CMS is supporting efforts of researchers to obtain solid, actionable data to accelerate the development of new treatments and our understanding of the coronavirus. Today’s action encourages clinicians to report data that will help us monitor the spread of the virus, find innovative medical solutions, and unleash scientific discovery as we seek to overcome this terrible disease.”

Obviously, the more data researchers have, the better solutions they can come up with. It’s something that everyone will benefit from. When healthcare providers submit this important data, it can help lead to improvements in both patient care as well as assist in developing best practices initiatives to help manage the spread of COVID-19.

To receive MIPS credit, providers simply need to attest to the fact that they are participating in a “...COVID-19 clinical trial utilizing a drug or biological product to treat a patient with a COVID-19 infection and report their findings through a clinical data repository or clinical data registry for the duration of their study." With improvement activities counting for 15 percent of their MIPS score, this can have a positive financial impact.

There are a variety of clinical trials, both private and government-funded, available to choose from. To see available trials, go to clinicaltrials.gov for more information.