Accountable Care Organization

MHACO Provider Resources

Resource Topics

Providers are eligible to participate in the ACO who are a MD, DO or Primary Care NP and a member of the medical staff of Franklin Memorial Hospital, LincolnHealth, Maine Medical Center, Memorial Hospital, Mid Coast Hospital, Pen Bay Medical Center, Southern Maine Health Care, Stephens Memorial Hospital, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center or Waldo County General Hospital. To begin the process of joining the MaineHealth ACO, please email us to request an application packet.

Participants 

Annual Compliance Training Documents

Compliance and Privacy Manual Policies

2024 Resources

Beneficiary Information Notice
Beneficiary Information Notice without Portal
Beneficiary Information Notice (Spanish)
Beneficiary Information Notice without Portal (Spanish)
Voluntary Alignment Fact Sheet with Instructions for Beneficiaries (English)
Voluntary Alignment Fact Sheet with Instructions for Beneficiaries (Spanish)
Voluntary Alignment Fact Sheet for Practice Staff
Office Poster (PDF)
Office Poster Spanish (PDF)

Coding Documents

Key Measures

MIPS impacts the payment adjustment applied to the physician fee schedule. The ACO gets one overall MIPS score. This score translates to a payment adjustment that will be applied to claims, two years after the reporting year (e.g., 2024 program year, submitted in 2025, impacts 2026 payments.) Practices that participate in the ACO's MSSP contract are automatically enrolled in a special MIPS payment model created for ACO participants called the MIPS APM. Because the ACO reports some categories of data on behalf of its participants, this model places a reduced reporting burden on practices, compared to those enrolled in Traditional MIPS. Specifically, the ACO reports Quality data for MIPS and MSSP, Cost is not scored, and MIPS APM participants receive full credit for Improvement Activities.

Promoting Interoperability (PI) - Each ACO participant TIN (tax ID number) is required to report for the Promoting Interoperability (PI) category unless they have an exemption or do not meet the low volume threshold. Providers that do not meet the low volume threshold may be eligible to opt-in and report to receive the ACO’s payment adjustment. Beginning in 2022 the Small Practice exception became an automatic exception (no application required). Definition of small practice is practice or clinician with 15 or fewer clinicians billing under the practice’s TIN. For the 2024 reporting period MIPS reporters must have CEHRT functionality that meets ONC’s certification criteria in 45 CFR 170.315  functionality must be in place by the first day of your MIPS reporting period and functionality must be in place by the last day of the MIPS reporting period. We Will also need to provide your EHR’s CMS identification code from the Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL), available here when you submit your data. We suggest working directly with your HIT / EHR vendor to ensure their compliance plans.

What’s new in 2024:

  1. Updated the CEHRT definition to align with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)’s regulations 45 CFR 170.315
  2. The only clinician type that now receives automatic exemption is clinician social worker. Discontinued automatic reweighting for physical therapists, occupational therapists, qualified speech-language pathologists, qualified audiologists, clinical psychologists, and registered dietitians or nutrition professionals for the Promoting Interoperability performance.
  3. Increased the performance period to a minimum of 180 continuous days within the calendar year.
  4. Modified the second exclusion for the Query of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) measure beginning with the 2024 performance period so that it reads as follows:
    Any MIPS eligible clinician who does not electronically prescribe any Schedule II opioids or Schedule III or IV drugs during the performance period.
  5. Require a “yes” response for the Safety Assurance Factors for Electronic Health Record (EHR) Resilience (SAFER) Guide measure beginning with the 2024 performance period.

MIPS Promoting Interoperability Requirements

Participants must submit collected data for specific measures from each of the 4 objectives (unless an exclusion is claimed) for 90 continuous days or more during 2020:

  1. e-Prescribing
  2. Health Information Exchange
  3. Provider to Patient Exchange
  4. Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange 

Measure Specifications

e-Prescribing

Health Information Exchange

Provider to Patient Exchange: Provide Patients Electronic Access to their Health Information

Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange

View measure specifications here

Attestations Required but Not Scored

Security Risk Analysis: must conduct on 2015 CEHRT on an annual basis – Work with your IT vendor

Actions to Limit or Restrict Interoperability of CEHRT: acted in good faith and took necessary steps to prevent limiting or restricting the compatibility or interoperability of CEHRT - SUBMIT YESONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology)

Direct Review Attestation: assent to federal government audit - SUBMIT YES

Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guides measure

HARP (HCQIS access roles and profile system) Account Information

The Quality Payment Program (QPP) portal requires you to have a login and password. Please begin here: QPP Sign In (cms.gov)

ACO Careers

Join us! The MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization is hiring. Click to view and apply for open positions.