Quality Measures that Have Changed that Might Impact your Practice

For 2024, there are 11 new measures and 9 measures that have been retired.

There are 11 new measures, only one measure that may fit well into the workflow of  podiatry practices, Measure 495: Ambulatory Palliative Care Patients’ Experience of Feeling Heard and Understood. This measure involves you sending a questionnaire to the patients to ask if you treated them in hospice and ask if they feel that you paid attention to them and you heard their issues and heard their problems.

If you are seeing more than a few palliative care patients, then this may be one of the measures that you want to add to the measures that you report. It does not seem well within the bounds of podiatry, but when you consider the measures that have been removed, you will realize that podiatrists will need to replace some measures.

One of the potential problems with this measure is that it involves sending a survey to hospice patients. These are patients that are terminally ill and may not see or respond to the survey before they pass.

The other 10 new measures are:

•       • 505: Reduction in Suicidal Ideation or Behavior Symptoms
•       • 504: Initiations, Review, and/or Update to Suicide Safety Plan for Individuals with Suicidal Thoughts, Behavior or Suicide Risk
•       • 503 (CBE 2483): Gains in Patient Activation Measure (PAM) Scores at 12 Months
•       • 502: Improvement or Maintenance of Functioning for Individuals with a Mental and/or Substance Use Disorder
•       • 501: Acute Posterior Vitreous Detachment and Acute Vitreous Hemorrhage Appropriate Examination and Follow-Up
•       • 500: Acute Posterior Vitreous Detachment Appropriate Examination and Follow-Up
•       • 499: Appropriate Screening and Plan of Care for Elevated Intraocular Pressure Following Intravitreal or Periocular Steroid Therapy
•       • 498: Connection to Community Service Provider
•       • 497: Preventative Care and Wellness (Composite)
•       • 496: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Assessment Measure – Proportion of Pregnant/Postpartum Patients that receive CVD Risk Assessment with a Standardized Instrument

There are 5 measures that have been removed for 2024 that podiatrists may have used in the past.

•       • 110: Preventative Care and Screening: Influenza Immunization
•       • 111: Pneumococcal Vaccination Status for Older Adults
•       • 138: Melanoma: Coordination of Care
•       • 402: Tobacco Use and Help with Quitting Among Adolescents
•       • 128: Preventative Care and Screening: Body Mass Index (BMI) Screening and Follow-up plan

These measures are no longer available for 2024. If you have been using any of these measures, you now need to find measures to replace them.

Other retired measures for 2024 include:

•       • 14 Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD): Dilated Macular Examination
•       • 93 Acute Otitis Externa (AOE): Systemic Antimicrobial Therapy – Avoidance of Inappropriate Use
•       • 107 Adult Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Suicide Risk Assessment
•       • 147 Nuclear Medicine: Correlation with Existing Imaging Studies for Al Patients Undergoing Bone Scintigraphy

These measures are not things that typically occur in podiatry practices. The fact that they have been removed is not likely to affect podiatrist’s participation in MIPS.

While 5 measures that have been removed and only one measure that podiatrists can possibly used was added to the system. It is getting harder and harder for podiatrists to find measures that are a part of the MIPS system that fits well with the specialty.

It is imperative that you look at what measures you can do and what you can implement in your workforce NOW.

There may be measures that you thought you could use that are no longer available. Contact your registry, contact Registry Clearinghouse and contact your EHR vendor. Explore what your options are for reporting for 2024. You want to put everything in place immediately. You don’t want November 2024 to arrive and realize that you’ve been collecting data on measures that don’t exist anymore. You have to be proactive, else you’re going to be looking at a penalty for the 2024 reporting period that will negatively impact your income in 2026. Registry Clearinghouse’s goal is to ensure offices such as your own are not hit with a penalty, and whenever possible, if there’s any bonus money out there, they get a share of the bonus money.

Key Takeaways:

•       • 5 Measures that were available to podiatrists, including 128: Preventative Care and Screening: Body Mass Index (BMI) Screening and Follow-up plan, have been removed
•       • Only 1 new measure that can apply to podiatrists has been added and this measure can be difficult to meet
•       • Registry Clearinghouse has podiatry specific measures that podiatrists can use to replace the measures that have been removed. Email info@registryclearinghouse or schedule a meeting to explore your options to submit for 2024.