2021-15652. Medicare Program; Calendar Year 2021 Alternative Payment Model (APM) Incentive Payment Advisory for Clinicians-Request for Current Billing Information for Qualifying APM Participants

AGENCY:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION:

Payment advisory.

SUMMARY:

This advisory is to alert certain clinicians who are Qualifying APM participants (QPs) and eligible to receive an Alternative Payment Model (APM) Incentive Payment that CMS does not have the current billing information needed to disburse the payment. This advisory provides information to these clinicians on how to update their billing information to receive this payment.

DATES:

Updated billing information must be received no later than November 1, 2021 (see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for details).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tanya Dorm, [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

Under the Medicare Quality Payment Program, an eligible clinician who participates in an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) and meets the applicable payment amount or patient count thresholds for a performance year is a Qualifying APM Participant (QP) for that year. An eligible clinician who is a QP for a year based on their performance in a QP Performance Period earns a 5-percent lump sum APM Incentive Payment that is paid in a payment year that occurs 2 years after the QP Performance Period. The amount of the APM Incentive Payment is equal to 5 percent of the estimated aggregate paid amounts for covered professional services furnished by the QP during the calendar year (CY) immediately preceding the payment year.

II. Provisions of the Advisory

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has identified those eligible clinicians who earned an APM Incentive Payment in CY 2021 based on their CY 2019 QP status.

When CMS disbursed the CY 2021 APM Incentive Payments, CMS was unable to verify current Medicare billing information for some QPs and was therefore unable to issue payment. In order to successfully disburse the APM Incentive Payment, CMS is requesting assistance in identifying current Medicare billing information for these QPs in accordance with 42 CFR 414.1450(c)(8).

CMS has compiled a list of QPs we have identified as having unverified billing information. These QPs, and any others who anticipated receiving an APM Incentive Payment but have not, should follow the instructions to provide CMS with updated billing information at the following web address: https://qpp-cm-prod-content.s3.amazonaws.com/​uploads/​1498/​QP%20Notice%20for%20APM%20Incentive%20Payment.zip.

If you have any questions concerning submission of information through the website, please contact the Quality Payment Program Help Desk at 1-866-288-8292.

All submissions must be received no later than November 1, 2021. After that time, any claims by a QP to an APM Incentive Payment will be forfeited for the CY 2021 payment year.

The Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, having reviewed and approved this document, authorizes Lynette Wilson, who is the Federal Register Liaison, to electronically sign this document for purposes of publication in the Federal Register.

Dated: July 19, 2021.

Lynette Wilson,

Federal Register Liaison, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.