Figure 1. Mean Physician MIPS Scores by Ventile of Patient Social Risk, Adjusted and Unadjusted for Patient Medical Complexity.

Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scores may range from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating better performance across 3 domains: advancing care information, improvement activities, and quality. The scores reflect a weighted average of performance across those domains, along with additional bonuses and adjustments. Social risk was defined as the proportion of Medicare patients treated by a physician who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Horizontal line indicates the unadjusted mean. Confidence intervals fell within the space of the plotted dots. HCC indicates Hierarchical Condition Category. Physicians were ordered by the proportion of their patients dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, with each group containing 1/20th of the study population (ventile).

^aPhysicians in the “low” category of patient panel social risk have a proportion of dually eligible patients in the bottom quintile among MIPS-participating physicians; those in the “medium” category are in the middle 3 quintiles; those in the “high” category are in the top quintile.