Becker's Hospital Review

26 CFO / FINANCE CMS miscalculated MIPS payment adjustments: 4 things to know By Ayla Ellison C MS disclosed in September it made an error when processing quality scores for physicians participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Here are four things to know: 1. CMS released feedback for physicians included in MIPS during the 2017 perfor- mance year. e agency also launched the targeted review process, which allows pro- viders to request a review of their MIPS pay- ment adjustment factors if they believe there is an error with the 2019 MIPS payment ad- justment calculation. 2. "e requests that we received through tar- geted review caused us to take a closer look at a few prevailing concerns," CMS said. "ose concerns included the application of the 2017 Advancing Care Information and Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances hardship exceptions, the awarding of Improvement Ac- tivity credit for successful participation in the Improvement Activities Burden Reduction Study, and the addition of the All-Cause Re- admission measure to the MIPS final score." 3. CMS reviewed the concerns and identi- fied "a few errors in the scoring logic and implemented solutions," the agency said. Correcting the mistakes resulted in chang- es to the 2017 MIPS final score and asso- ciated 2019 MIPS payment adjustment for some clinicians. CMS did not disclose how many physicians were affected or how much providers were overpaid or underpaid as a result of the errors. 4. CMS extended the targeted review dead- line from Sept. 30 to Oct. 15 to give physi- cians more time to access and review their performance feedback. n Tennessee health system files for bankruptcy, says it owes CHS $28M By Ayla Ellison K noxville, Tenn.-based Curae Health and its three hospi- tals in Mississippi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 24. Filings in the bankruptcy case show Curae and the three hos- pitals have $3.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $96 million in liabilities, according to the Monroe Journal. Curae listed the creditors who have the largest unsecured claims against the health system in its bankruptcy petition. Ac- cording to the petition, Curae owes $28.6 million to Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. The three Mississippi hospitals included in Curae's bank- ruptcy case are Gilmore Memorial Hospital in Amory, Panola Medical Center in Batesville and Northwest Mississippi Med- ical Center in Clarksdale. All three hospitals were previously owned by CHS. In a statement to the Monroe Journal, Curae said the hospitals will operate as normal throughout the bankruptcy process. "Many rural hospitals across the country have faced year-over- year financial challenges due to government funding cuts, un- funded care mandates and other pressures," Curae said. "Our hospitals were not immune to these issues and after exhaust- ing other possibilities, the decision was clear that the hospitals could not continue to operate under mounting debt and tight- ening financial resources." Curae told the Monroe Journal it expects to sell the hospitals as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. n Steward closes Ohio hospital, lays off 388 By Ayla Ellison D allas-based Steward Health Care closed Youngstown, Ohio-based Northside Regional Medical Center Sept. 20. Steward cited a sharp decline in patient volume as the reason for the closure. "Despite continued investment, Northside Regional Medical Center remains significantly under-utilized — as it has been for many years," Steward said. "While other nearby hospitals have seen increasing numbers of patient visits in recent years, Northside has seen a 71 percent decrease over the past decade." Northside Regional Medical Center will stop accept- ing ambulances and admissions in the emergency de- partment Sept. 17, and any remaining inpatients will be transferred or discharged by Sept. 19. Steward has already started contacting patients with procedures scheduled at Northside Regional Medical Center to transition them to nearby hospitals. The closure will affect the hospital's 388 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining No- tification Act notice filed Aug. 15. Northside Regional Medical Center said employees will be paid through Oct. 14 and compensated for accrued benefits. In 2017, Steward acquired Northside Regional Medical Center, previously Northside Medical Center, and sev- en other hospitals from Franklin, Tenn.-based Commu- nity Health Systems. n

• Cover