What are the four performance categories in the MIPS program?

• A. Quality, Cost, Improvement Activities, and Advancing Care Information.
• B. Quality, Access, Innovation, and Compliance.
• C. Cost, Utilization, Outcomes, and Reporting.
• D. Safety, Equity, Efficiency, and Transparency.

Answer: (A)

The four performance categories that determine a clinician’s MIPS score are Quality, Cost, Improvement Activities, and Advancing Care Information. Quality covers standardized measures of patient outcomes and the care processes you report or that CMS collects from records. Cost looks at Medicare spending per beneficiary and is calculated by CMS from claims data, reflecting resource use rather than what you report. Improvement Activities capture practice-level efforts that demonstrate care improvement and coordination, patient engagement, and practice transformation. Advancing Care Information focuses on using certified EHRs, exchanging health information, and giving patients access to their data, aligning with meaningful use goals. These four together make up the framework CMS uses to compute the final MIPS score that affects payment. The other options mix terms that aren’t part of the official MIPS categories.