MIPS Mastery For Eye Care Leaders

We break down how MIPS really works, why the 75‑point threshold matters, and how to stop the year‑end scramble by building a simple plan that fits ophthalmology and medical optometry. Jackie Waterhouse and Ashley Hennis share practical steps on measures, EHRs, staffing, and audits.

• what MIPS is and how Medicare ties payment to quality
• why rule changes, benchmarks and practice status shifts matter
• how to pick fewer, better quality measures by subspecialty
• improvement activities that truly improve patient operations
• audits as random checks and how to document for accuracy
• EHR fit, workflow design and risks of paper or bad templates
• training frontline staff for portals, demographics and PI
• the cost of turnover and how to protect measure performance
• building a monthly MIPS calendar to avoid Q4 panic
• MVP pathways and how to prepare for the shift

Contact Jackie and Ashley at mips@codexit.com or on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-hennes/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-waterhousecot/ 

If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content

Subscribe to our HR newsletter for eye care leaders at seasoned‑advice.com

===

This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com. 

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

Transcript

Meet The Guests And Topic

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Greetings and welcome to iCare Leadership Live. My name is Mike Lyons, and my guests today are Jackie Waterhouse and Ashley Hennit from Codex IT, and we're going to be talking about MIPS. MIPS is, as you know, an incredibly important topic, and these two ladies have a ton of expertise there. So take a listen, and I'm sure that you'll be getting some tips to help you uh with your MIPS program. My guests today are Jackie Waterhouse and Ashley Hennis from Codex IT. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Welcome. Thanks, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Ooh, we're getting the hearts from Jackie. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Ooh, I did it too. Great. Um, well, welcome everybody. Welcome, Jackie and Ashley. Thanks for joining. We're here to talk about MIPS. Y'all know something about MIPS, from what I understand.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

A little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

A little bit about MIPS. Now, I I don't know a whole lot about MIPS. Actually, almost everything I know I learned from y'all the other day when we talked. Um, but MIPS is really important. And so we're gonna get into that. But maybe before we get started, would y'all mind telling me a little bit about what you do and um how did you get into MIPS? So, Jackie, why don't you kick us off with that?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Thank you. I have been in ophthalmology for a long time. Yes, and that meant managing clinics, helping clinicians with their workflows, training technicians, all of the above. I pivoted my career in 2022 to get into compliance and work in the MIPS program. And what we do now is we help practices, large, small, all practices, different specialties, navigate the world of MIPS and help them get through their performance year successfully with a great submission. And that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Okay. Ashley.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, similar to Jackie, I worked in ophthalmology. I worked in ophthalmology for about 15 years prior to uh becoming uh more in the compliance world in 2021. So I was a COA and a um and a clinic manager, and then like I said, transitioned to MIPS fully in 2021. And uh same thing as Jackie, really focus on helping practices simplify MIPS and stay compliant. Um, and we do.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Okay. Exciting. Well, y'all are y'all are definitely um pros when it comes to MIPS. Um, and I'm guessing a lot of the people listening know exactly what MIPS is all about. I guarantee they know probably, but but for anyone who might be listening who is like, what in the heck is MIPS? What does it stand for? Why is it important? Um can you can you give me the short answer of what that is? Jackie, why don't you take that one maybe? And then actually, if you want to jump in.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

So MIPS is a program that is run by CMS and it is a Medicare program. So it's for clinicians who bill Medicare. And it really makes clinicians focus on the quality of care as opposed to the quantity of their care in terms of how many patients that they see. So clinicians are scored in different categories throughout a performance year, and their Medicare reimbursements are very much geared and towards how they score in those categories.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Okay, so that's pretty important, right? So, like how much money you make is gonna depend on your MIPS reporting. Very important.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And from what I understand, physicians usually are interested in how much money they take in, right? Is that kind of important? That's probably probably something they care about.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Second to their second to their patient care, yes, that's probably second on their list.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Patient care and making money. That's absolutely vital. Okay. Well, um, so you know, when it comes to MIPS, um, there's probably some things that you can do right. There's some things that you can kind of maybe not do, not do right, or maybe not do as well as you could. Um, and and so what are, you know, let's talk about some of those tips, MIPS tips, um, that people could could understand. So what are some mistakes maybe that people make? Like what is one thing that you you commonly see practices not doing correctly or just not doing?

Common Mistakes And Moving Targets

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, so I think that one of uh the biggest struggles for practices is one kind of making a game plan and really structuring uh a year, not centered around MIPS, but kind of having you know touch points. So they're making sure they're keeping up with the changing rules. Every year, you know, CMS changes the program, even just even if it's just slightly some years there's more changes than others. And then staying on top of scoring and not getting to the end of the year and kind of feeling like they have to rush or that they didn't do something in a in a timely manner. Um, so I think staying on top of that is um sometimes difficult for practices. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

That's really yeah. Some of the common mistakes too, practices make is they're not really aware of what their requirements are within the MIPS program. You know, the program is very nuanced. So depending upon your practice size, geography, things like that, your requirements are very specific to your practice. So mistakes can happen when practices are not educated to understand what they're required to do. And then CMS comes back and says, you know, you didn't submit the data in this category or you submitted the wrong data and things like that. And that can really get practices in trouble with their reimbursements.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So you talked about changes in the program. Um what's an example of a change that has happened that maybe threw some people off? They didn't realize it changed. Can you give an example?

Measure Changes And Practice Status Shifts

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah, so um maybe um it an example would be a quality measure that maybe you've focused on for several years, you scored really well on, you count on that quality measure as uh something that really helps your score. And then maybe there was a significant change where either that measure was removed from the program because that does happen as measures get topped out, they get removed, um, or perhaps a benchmark change for that measure, and which means that maybe your score, um, your percentage that you score in that measure doesn't as equate to as high of a points, um, a point value in that measure. So that can be a big, especially if if practices don't, maybe they're just counting on that and they get to the end of the year and realize, wait a second, this was um a big change that we didn't realize. Um so I think measure changes can really impact uh practices.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Yep, and practice level changes also can heavily impact, you know, impact practices. In you know, you have the performance year that's 12 months, and generally in November, CMS will release new practice uh information, whether it's practice statuses, where they're located, their geography again is very important, how big the practice is. And sometimes the practice status can change from a small practice to a large practice, and they have to submit different data based on that. And if they are not aware that they have to be very mindful of the CMS updates, then they go into the next performance year, you know, thinking that they're doing what they're supposed to do. But in fact, what they need to do has changed as of like December of the prior year. So that's an important thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Okay, so there could be some uh moving targets, I guess, to some to some extent.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Definitely. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

That's always fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

PNS keeps us on our toes.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Where can where, yeah, go ahead, Jackie.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

And and that's something that Ashley and I, you know, we have a unique situation where we manage practices together. So we are always watching all these different moving targets, you know. It's like, you know, so we are making sure that practices know exactly where they stand, exactly what they are required to submit. So we take that guesswork out for them and just basically give them very specific items and it really lessens the burden for the practice so they don't have to worry about all those details.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Okay. It's always nice to have um someone taking the details off your plate. Um, where can where can a practice find out what are they supposed to be doing? You know, if things are changing all the time, um, how do you even know what the rules of the game are exactly for your practice?

Where To Find The Rules

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Yeah, so CMS, uh, like Jackie mentioned previously releases a final rule um in typically in November, December, or December of um the the year before. Um and unfortunately, fortunately, they release that. Unfortunately, for practices, it's a thousand pages long. Um, so it um is not always easy to go through, but there are other resources available to really kind of pull out the important information that you need. Um definitely going to the quality payment program, knowing what your practice is required to report on, and looking at the resources available on that website are are really beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

You know, you talked about how practices can be different. Um, and I you mentioned the size, right? So there could be, you know, size measures can can change what you have to track. Are there other differences between clinics that that would necessitate different reporting or different information you have to track besides the size?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yes, there are um geography matters, uh practices that are located in more rural areas or areas where there is not a lot of other clinicians like them, they do get benefits where they may have to submit less data in certain categories. So that's very important to know. If they don't know that they're required to submit a certain amount of data, they can submit insufficient data. And then therefore they would score poorly in that category. I'm speaking specifically of improvement activities, which is one of the four categories in the MIPS program.

Geography, Size, And Requirements

SPEAKER_00 10:53

So okay. Okay, let's get let's talk about that. So getting a little bit into like what is in MIPS, and and again, this is my ignorant, you know, HR guy knowledge. So, like, what is an improvement activity? So let's say I'm an ophthalmology clinic and I'm trying to track my MIPS and stuff, and I and I have to do an I have to track my improvement activity. What are some things that could qualify as an improvement activity under MIPS?

Inside Improvement Activities

SPEAKER_02 11:21

So improvement activities really the focus of that category is improving practice operations. So if you think about it like that, it can encompass a lot of things. Obviously, you can't just pick something and say, that's what we did to improve it. Um, it has to be CMS um CMS um improvement activities that they've designated. Um so they can be anything from uh patient surveys. So that's an example. If a if a practice sends out patient surveys and they they then have to take those surveys and maybe they're getting a common complaint that um you know a provider's bedside manner is that would never happen. That never happens, never happens, but um, so maybe they go to that clinician and they have a conversation, um, or maybe it's something as simple as a wait time on a Tuesday morning and they're receiving that continuously. So they say, you know, maybe we need to look at our Tuesday morning, uh, you know, our Tuesday morning schedule and we need to pivot. Um, so that's an example of an improvement.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Interesting. So is there's like some person in Washington, DC that's like, yeah, that's a pretty good improvement. I like that. I'm gonna give them extra points for that. How does that work?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Well, CMS really is trying to improve the like the process and the operations within the clinic. So that is, I I do think and give them credit for putting energy and effort into these improvement activities that do improvement improve processes like language access. You know, we we all have uh struggled within the clinic. Ashley and I had obviously worked in the clinic for years, where you a patient comes in that has a serious condition and there's a language barrier. So one of one improvement activities is implementing a language access plan. How do we handle when a patient comes in that is speaking Cambodian or any language? So there that's a great one to do. And I really think that there is care so that all patients that come in can be uh taken care of carefully, and we can improve the process to do that, even if it is patients that are cranky because they're waiting too long on a Tuesday morning, which was a great example, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

This show is sponsored by Seasoned Advice HR Services, where I help eye care businesses to make more money and save more money by hiring better, retaining better, and reducing your HR risk. If you would like an HR assessment or ongoing HR support, please reach out to me at seasoned-advice.com. This might be really technical, but like if let's say a clinic is purely ophthalmology and another one is like a mix of ophthalmology and optometry. Do you see differences in how those two operations um would want to think about their MIPS or not really so much?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

You know, I think most optometrists that we support are really medical optometrists. You know, they're doing routine eye exams. So a lot of those measures fall within the purview of ophthalmology. Ashley, would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Or yeah, I would definitely agree. Um, especially typically if it's a mixed practice of ophthalmologists and optometrists, you're going to see a lot of overlap in the measures. They're treating the same type of patients and maybe doing the follow-up after the surgery that the ophthalmologist performs. So all of it kind of goes hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Okay, sure. Yeah.

Subspecialties, Quality Measures, And Focus

SPEAKER_01 14:59

And what can be even more trickier than optometrists is when you have a practice that has a lot of sub-specialties within ophthalmology. And that's really where Ashley and I like to hone in on the quality uh category and how we can choose and help them choose what measures work best for them based on their specialty.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I see. So, like if let's say if they have a glaucoma doctor, exactly, there would be different things you might track for those physicians.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yes. And that's where, you know, again, I hate to keep plugging us as the dynamic duo, but we do give them specific quality measures that say, hey, this will work better for your clinic, rather than them looking at like 18 quality measures. We're like, wait a minute, let's slow it down, let's choose 10, let's simplify the process, help you learn how to document that in your EHR. And before you know it, the burden is like everybody's breathing deep because it's like, wow, okay, it's not as complicated as we thought it was. So really, when it when you're getting into these subspecialties, it can be a little bit more challenging.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Okay, gotcha. Um I'm I'm wondering, you know, anytime you deal with the government, right? Um, I'm starting to think about taxes, right? So like I did my taxes not that long ago. You know, I like to get it done early in the year, did my taxes. And, you know, there's always this fear or this concern, uh, I'm gonna get audited, you know, like they're gonna, they're gonna want to look at my records and stuff. Um, is that common? What does that look like? What tends to trigger, you know, a review? Can you kind of talk about, you know, audits or what I call in the enforcement category of things? Um, how does that work? And is that a big risk that people need to be thinking about?

Audits, Accuracy, And Risk

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Yeah, I mean, it definitely is a risk. Um just like doing your taxes, the most important thing is that you know that you did them correctly and that you submitted the correct information because the point of an audit is to find, uh, just like with your taxes, the point of an audit in MIPS would be to find um in inaccurate data that was submitted. Um the thing to remember about uh the audits that are performed by CMS, they are typically random. So just because you're selected for an audit doesn't mean that you did anything wrong. Um, and it's typically, it can be, but it's typically not your entire set of data that you submitted. It's typically CMS is trying to make sure that the data that they received for one specific measure or for one specific category was accurate. So they're going to um ask for uh they're gonna ask for the information related to that measure. Um they also not only audit practices, but they audit the registries, um, like the iris registry that ophthalmologists use. So they're also auditing the registries. There it's really just a way for them to make sure that the data that is being submitted is accurate because they use that data because the whole goal of the MIPS program is to improve patient care. So, in order to be able to use that data to do that, they have to make sure it's accurate. So that's ultimately the goal.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Gotcha. You know, I we I know I really understand with MIPS that you know, your reimbursements from CMS can be affected. I'm curious, is there a benchmark number that that you can see that you have seen, maybe even anecdotally, right? Like, oh, the typical practice has you know no impact to their reimbursements because they're doing MIPS grape, or oh, you know what, the typical practice has like a 2%, you know, deduction off of their Medicare. Is there is there a number that you can say, hey, if you're below this, then you're probably you know below the benchmark. And if you're above this, then you're then you're doing you know, above the norm? And is that question even make sense?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

It does make sense. I I'm trying to follow you. I you know, I think you're thinking about like the threshold, like a neutral threshold, like you don't pay or you don't get money back. Is that what you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yeah, like and and what is and what is normal? You know, is it normal for a clinic to to be dinged on their MIPS on an ongoing basis? Um or or is it normal to just kind of be flat? And what the goal is normal look like there is no normal.

Scoring, Thresholds, And Avoiding Penalties

SPEAKER_01 19:25

The goal is to always be above the net neutral, which is 75 points. You know, the the score is from zero to 100, 100 being perfect, obviously. So the goal is to not, you know, you always want to be in the positive, right? To say that there's an average, no, all practices score differently for various different reasons. Remember, there's four categories. Some practices do better in some categories than others, so there is no really standard. The whole goal is to avoid a penalty. And to do that, you just have to really know the four categories and do your best to try to do great work within those categories to score high. We want to always avoid a negative adjustment.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

So how common are these negative adjustments? You know, like if I threw it, if I threw a dart at the at the map and hit a random ophthalmology practice, for example, what percent do you think would have a negative adjustment, you think?

SPEAKER_02 20:28

It it's hard to say. Uh like Jackie mentioned, there's so many different mitigating circumstances. Um, and sometimes practices can receive a negative adjustment for a year because they had a really difficult, maybe they had an EHR change or um they had something substantial happen within their practice that impacted their score for that year. Um, I would say though, that not to give a percentage, but to say if you've consistently scored below 75, it really is uh important that you take a you know a second to kind of reevaluate because just because you're scoring lower, you may actually be working harder than you need to be and you may be like just treading water and spinning your wheels. So I'd say if you if you have consistently, if there's a practice out there that has consistently scored below 75, or they feel like they're spending an enormous amount of time on MIPS and they're not really improving their score, that would be a good time to kind of take a minute to reevaluate what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

For those a minute or a week.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Right. Yeah. For those, let's say that there's a practice out there that has been putting a lot of effort and they're and maybe they're getting a negative adjustment, they don't understand. What are what are some typical things that you and I realize every practice may be different, but maybe there's one or two typical things that you have seen come up multiple times that is often the culprit, and or maybe an adjustment that can be often made um to help them get over that 75.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Oftentimes I think it's a workflow issue and they're taking on too much and they're not working the program efficiently. You know, if if you look at the totality of what they're doing, Ashley and I would probably take a step back and look at all four categories and try to make it efficient, pick measures that work best for them, see, you know, what is the reason. You know, sometimes if you are in certain specialties, it can be harder to score better, but consistently being under net neutral, we would really have to look at each practice individually and really pick it apart. Ashley, what are your thoughts on that?

Culture, Teamwork, And Frontline Role

SPEAKER_02 22:43

No, I definitely agree. I think that MIPS is not um it's not easy. It's not simple, but it can be simplified. And that's where again, like you know, Jackie and I understand the the totality of the program. So and and then by under you understand your practice, we understand the program. And by those two coming together, we can kind of really you know make it more simple.

unknown 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Maybe you know it's never going to be easy but we can simplify it for you. Yeah definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Since we're since we're live on LinkedIn right now, I just want to say if anyone has a question or a comment, you know, let's say you're you know if you're a big fan of MIPS, we'd love to hear about it. Or if you have a MIP tip to drop into the comments, uh we'd love to hear from you. So just make a comment there on LinkedIn. We'll see it and we can address them right here while we're chatting. Since we do have two experts here with us and we'd love just to hear from you. With that, I'm wondering I feel like I've heard things about MIPS not just changing, but like is it going away or is it being de-emphasized? And maybe this is just me like not really paying attention to this topic because it's not really an HR thing. Is MIPS going away? Is it being de-emphasized or is it maybe the opposite? Is it getting more important? Tell me tell me what you're seeing trend wise like with MIPS.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

I don't think MIPS is going to go away because that would mean that Medicare would be giving up control of reimbursements. Don't see that happening anytime soon. There are changes you know now we we focus on traditional MIPS. CMS did release a new program called uh acronym MVP because we love acronyms but it really stands for MIPS Value Pathway. And it is a program that is in place now. So it's sort of um side by side with traditional MIPS. And the program is set up to be specialty specific. So really it's trying I think they're trying to decrease the burden on specialties so that instead of looking at the quality category and seeing 24 measures, the specialty may only see 10 measures so they can really I think it's trying to help them kind of simplify the process. So MVP is the way of the future. So right now we have both MIPS traditional and MVP side by side Ashley and our and I are both all of our practices are doing both just to get prepared because traditional MIPS will be phased out at some point whether it's 2028 2029 it's going to happen and then we'll be dealing only with MVP.

EHR Choices And Workflow Design

SPEAKER_00 25:37

But I think it will always change there'll always be little changes to it but I don't think it's ever going to go away because then how would Medicare be controlling how they reimburse practice you know clinicians so yeah what is the importance you know I as an HR person I think about the frontline employees a lot and and how we train them and onboard them and educate them. How important is it that your frontline employees understand MIPS what it is why it's important is that important or is it just like hey like fill this part out in the chart and you know we'll be good to go kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

No, I think you're right it's it's really important. MIPS is a really good opportunity to create um teamwork and ownership within the practice there are once you you create a workflow for a specific measure um including everyone that's a part of that to understand why you're doing it then there's ownership when you do well that everyone has contributed to that. So I think that um it really is a a good actually an opportunity to um to include everyone and to kind of create that that teamwork and that ownership and outcomes yeah and the the front staff is very important for for like promoting interoperability which is one of the categories in the MIPS program.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

You know they check the patients in they set them up for the patient portal they collect all the demographics and like Ashley said we are huge on teamwork. When we have client calls we want them to bring everybody to the call bring everybody whoever you want to bring so that everybody can understand it. We really believe that when everybody is involved the outcome works out better.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

So yeah I I'm a huge fan of that I love that and because I think when employees understand the goal whether it's MIPS or whatever patient satisfaction um yeah they want to be they want to see that metric get better like oh we got a 76 let's get an 80 next time let's get an 85 um because that's fun I get a sense of satisfaction from knowing that you know we're doing a good job um what you know we've talked about the EHR a little bit here what what is the role of the EHR with MIPS um does it make it easier harder like what are the what are the things you have to think about when it comes to EHRs and then you know if you're changing EHR like where does that come into play and how do you have to think about that with MIPS also is that just a huge question no no it's a we love that question.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

It's one of our favorite questions.

Staff Turnover, Training, And Consistency

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yes yeah Ashley do you want to go ahead with that one so um an EHR has an enormous impact on MIPS um so each each EHR is going to have a workflow designated for um you know certain measures and you have to make sure that one that your your staff is trained that your uh technicians your scribes your front desk staff is trained on what they have to do to complete that measure um so that is really important um as well as if you're going to change EHRs keeping that in mind uh you know is this going to be burdensome to to MIPS workflows if we make this change to an EHR thinking about how that's going to obviously an EHR change is always going to be a a significant thing for for practices um but making sure that you're aware of how it impacts MIPS when you're deciding which EHR to change to understanding workflows within that EHR and uh how that's going to going to affect your your staff.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah. And one thing we see unfortunately uh often is a lot of clinicians still on paper charts which is always very difficult to participate in the program. So that's where I think a lot of the negative uh adjustments come into play because clinicians just don't participate even though they're supposed to but choosing an EHR specific to your specialty is really, really important. We see oftentimes practices will choose an EHR that just doesn't work well with their specialty which makes reporting very challenging and can create a lot more work for them. So choosing an EHR that works well for your specialty is probably one of the number number one things that come to mind for me.

Year‑Round Planning And Avoiding Q4 Panic

SPEAKER_02 30:10

So okay sure that's pretty important um you know I always you know kind of coming back to the people issue um because I always think about people and how that affects the results of a of a clinic I really believe that employee retention can help you with so many areas of clinical operation is that true for MIPS as well does staff retention staff turnover play any role when it comes to MIPS yeah 100% um I know Jackie and I can probably both attest to being on calls with practices and saying you were scoring you know 90% in this and now you're at 50% or this was you know and you asked and they're like you know what we've had a lot of turnover this is probably a training issue. When there is like turnover within within a group within the practice whether it be front desk or the clinic it it's uh almost like those things just fall through the cracks. So that's why again it's important to kind of know the why behind what you're doing but also that that staff retention factor um definitely plays in when it comes to MIPS.

unknown 31:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

I think another thing I just wanted to plug that came to mind is really incorporating MIPS into more compliance into the clinic throughout the whole year, not just waiting until Q4 to go, okay, what do we need to do? You know, it's starting now I mean it's February this is like the prime time to get things sort of all in order get started with documentation get started with understanding what we need to do for the year. And really that is the key to success.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

So okay I guess that you're I'm gonna read between the lines here that there are a lot of clinics that kind of wait till the end and they and they try to get all their stuff together. Is that a common thing that you see out there that clinics don't prioritize their MIPS tracking and they really just implement initiatives near the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

You don't have to name names or anything no we won't name names but let's just say we've gotten some panicky phone calls in November going oh my God how can we resurrect this? Right, Ashley?

MVP Pathway And The Future Of MIPS

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Yeah and I think that to knowing I've worked in a practice you're dealing with a hundred things you're dealing with you know new equipment equipment that's you know you're having to have service you're dealing with patients who are having you know that have serious medical conditions and you're you're dealing with real life things that sometimes MIPS can fall by the wayside and it's not because you chose to kind of put it off or you're you're procrastinating it really is just a product of you're dealing with a lot. So that's you know again why having a a process in place that really breaks it down where you're just touching it even if it's just a little bit you have a plan like in January we're gonna do this in February we're gonna do this so that you're not going, oh my gosh, it's been six months and we were dealing with this crisis that we completely forgot and now we're way off course.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

And I'm I'm guessing it to some extent that is part of what y'all do with the clinics that you work with is kind of help them lay out a plan for the year and keep them on track. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah we sort of have a MIPS calendar that we keep stored in our head. So so that every month there may be one or two small things that at the end of the year everybody's happy that they did because it doesn't feel like such a big task when it's done like that.

How To Get Help And Closing

SPEAKER_00 33:54

So okay awesome well um you know we could sit here and talk all day long about MIPS and I'm sure that everyone listening wishes that we would but you know you have to leave a little bit you have to leave people wanting more so this feels like a good place to wrap things up. If if anyone listening wants to get in touch with you, wants to learn more about the work that you do um with MIPS at Codex IT, what's the best way for someone to track you down?

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Well we're both on LinkedIn so don't hesitate to reach out to us send us a message on LinkedIn we can also give you our email address if you if you want to reach out to us um whether it be that you want to reach out on LinkedIn and we give it to you there or um it's MIPS at codexit is a good way to to reach us uh via email. So that's another another option.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah and I'll stick that I'll stick that information in the show notes um for folks that are listening to make it nice and easy but thank you both for joining the show today I learned a lot um MIPS is definitely obviously something that's super important and thanks for sharing your expertise with us here today. Thanks for having us Mike yeah thank you it's been great well that brings this episode of iCare Leadership Live to a conclusion if you enjoyed this episode please subscribe to the show on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content I promise to bring you more guests and content to help make you a better eye care clinical leader. I also invite you to subscribe to my HR newsletter for eye care leaders. You can find information about that at seasoned advice dot com. Now go out there and lead with confidence