AMGA, Optum Form MIPS Collaborative to Share Best Practices

Feb. 12, 2018
The American Medical Group Association and Optum, the health services business of UnitedHealth Group, have formed a collaborative focused on helping healthcare provider organizations successfully implement Medicare’s new physician payment scheme, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and Optum, the health services business of UnitedHealth Group, have formed a collaborative focused on helping healthcare provider organizations successfully implement Medicare’s new physician payment scheme, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

MIPS is a payment track created under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which governs how physicians and other clinicians are paid under Medicare Part B. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), clinicians can receive payment adjustments by showing high performance in the areas of quality, advancing care information, improvement activities and cost.

The MIPS Collaborative focuses on helping 17 healthcare provider organizations achieve high performance in those areas.

The participating care provider groups are:

Beaumont Health (Royal Oak, MI)

Billings Clinic (Billings, MT)

Carle Hospital (Urbana, IL)

Excela Health Medical Group (Greensburg, PA)

Genesis Medical Group (Bettendorf, IA)

Health Quest Medical Practice (Lagrangeville, NY)

Lexington Clinic (Lexington, KY)

Mayo Clinic Health System (Rochester, MN)

North Mississippi Medical Clinics (Tupelo, MS)

Northwell Health (Manhasset, NY)

OptumCare (Minnetonka, MN)

Prevea Health (Green Bay, WI)

Purchase Anesthesia (Paducah, KY)

St. Elizabeth Physicians (Crestview Hills, KY)

SwedishAmerican (Rockford, IL)

UNC Health Care (Chapel Hill, NC), and

WellMed Medical Group (San Antonio, TX)

“Participation in the MIPS Collaborative will help groups learn best practices and develop strategies to achieve success in all four MIPS domains,” erry Penso, M.D., president at AMGA Foundation and chief medical and quality officer at AMGA, said in a statement. “We look forward to evaluating the successes of the 17 participating groups as they work to transform their organizations and improve patient care.”

“MACRA and MIPS have brought major changes to today’s health care environment. Partnerships like the MIPS Collaborative enable care-provider organizations to succeed by sharing information and best practices,” Erik Johnson, vice president of value-based care, Optum Advisory Services, said.

The MIPS Collaborative began in March 2017 and will conclude in July 2018. The advisers include:

Scott Hines, M.D., chief quality officer, Crystal Run Healthcare

Charles Van Duyne, M.D., chief medical information/innovation officer, USMD Health System

Aric Sharp, M.H.A., VP accountable care, UnityPoint Clinic

Dave Nowiski, chief financial officer, Physician Operations, Mercy Health

Frank Colangelo, M.D., chief quality officer, Premier Medical Associates

Erik Johnson, vice president of value-based care, Optum Advisory Services

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