Promoting Interoperability in MIPS focuses on which of the following?

• A. EHR vendor certification processes
• B. Interoperability across networks without EHR use
• C. Data exchange with external entities only
• D. EHR use and data exchange; higher performance supports better Medicare payments

Answer: (D)

Promoting Interoperability under MIPS centers on using certified EHR technology and exchanging health information to improve patient care, with higher performance in those activities leading to better Medicare payments. This captures both the requirement to actively use EHRs and to share data with external entities, and it ties performance to incentive payments. The other options miss one or both of these elements: focusing only on vendor certification misses the actual use and data-sharing incentives; emphasizing interoperability without EHR use ignores the Adoption and meaningful use side; and mentioning data exchange with external entities only neglects the necessity of using and demonstrating performance with the EHR system.