CMS Updates Quality Payment Program in Final 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule

On Nov. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule, including changes to the Quality Payment Program. Policies of interest to neurosurgeons include:

• Removing spine-focused quality measures — #460, Back Pain After Lumbar Fusion; #469, Functional Status After Lumbar Fusion and #473, Leg Pain After Lumbar Fusion — from the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). CMS retained #260, Rate of CEA for Asymptomatic Patients, as an available MIPS measure for 2023.
• Requiring reporting of the Query of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program measure under the MIPS Promoting Interoperability category unless an exclusion can be claimed.
• Mandating public reporting of utilization data related to certain procedures on individual clinician profile pages on Care Compare starting as early as 2023.

More information about the final rule is available as follows:

• Click here for a CMS press release;
• Click here for a CMS fact sheet;
• Click here for QPP final rule resources (zip file); and
• Click here for a Medicare Shared Savings Program fact sheet.