Participating in MVP

MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) are an alternative way to report your MIPS performance. Instead of selecting measures from the full MIPS inventory, you report through a single pathway that groups related measures and activities around a clinical focus. MVPs are designed to reduce reporting burden and make performance more relevant to your practice. CMS intends to transition fully from traditional MIPS to MVPs in future years. This page includes the following topics:

Signing Up for MVP

Unlike traditional MIPS, MVP reporting requires advance registration through the QPP website. You must register during the MVP registration window, which runs from April 1 through November 30 of the performance year. Registration must be completed by someone at your organization who holds the QPP Security Official role.

The group participation option is only available to single-specialty groups or to multispecialty groups who also meet the definition of a small practice. Multispecialty groups who do not meet these criteria must form subgroups to report an MVP. A subgroup must include at least two clinicians, and at least one must be individually eligible for MIPS.

You must register for MVP before the deadline to be eligible to report MVP performance data. Registration, however, does not commit you to submitting MVP data. You may still submit traditional MIPS data instead of, or in addition to, your MVP data. If you submit multiple reporting options, CMS calculates each score and applies the highest final score to your payment adjustment.

Understanding MVP Requirements

When you report an MVP, you are still evaluated across the same four performance categories as traditional MIPS (i.e., Quality, Promoting Interoperability, Improvement Activities, and Cost). The difference is that the requirements are streamlined and aligned within the pathway you select.

Quality

The Quality category assesses the care you deliver using measures specific to your MVP. You must report four quality measures from your pathway’s measure set. At least one of those measures must be an outcome measure or a high-priority measure.

Promoting Interoperability

The Promoting Interoperability category focuses on the electronic exchange of health information using a certified EHR. You must report the full Promoting Interoperability measure set, consistent with traditional MIPS requirements. These measures are part of the MVP foundational layer and apply across all pathways.

Improvement Activities

The Improvement Activities category assesses your participation in activities that support patient engagement, care coordination, and practice improvement. You attest to completing activities rather than reporting performance data. For MVP reporting, you must complete one improvement activity during a continuous 90-day period within the performance year.

Cost

The Cost category evaluates the cost of the care you provide using Medicare claims data. You do not submit data for this category. CMS calculates your performance automatically using cost measures associated with your selected MVP.

Category Weighting and Scoring

MVPs use the same performance categories and scoring methodology as traditional MIPS. Each category contributes to your final score, which determines your Medicare payment adjustment.

Understanding How MVP Requirements Differ from Traditional MIPS

MVPs limit reporting to a smaller set of measures and activities that are aligned to a single clinical focus. In practice, this means that you report fewer quality measures, complete fewer improvement activities, and work within a predefined set of requirements that are more directly tied to your area of care. Promoting Interoperability and Cost requirements remain largely unchanged.

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