Claimocity Claims
Promoting Interoperability:
Reporting & Scoring Explained
Promoting Interoperability represents 25% of your MIPS score. That translates to real dollars for your Medicare reimbursements. Miss the mark on PI reporting, and you could face payment penalties up to 9%.
Here’s the problem: PI requirements keep changing, EHR systems don’t make reporting easy, and you’re already stretched thin managing patient care and documentation. Most providers understand PI matters but lack the bandwidth to stay on top of attestation deadlines, measure requirements, and scoring calculations.
This guide simplifies PI reporting for inpatient providers. We’ll explain what the category measures, how scoring actually works, and how to meet requirements without adding hours to your workload. You’ll walk away knowing exactly what’s expected and how to handle it efficiently.
What is Promoting Interoperability?
Promoting Interoperability is a MIPS performance category that measures whether you’re actually using your EHR technology effectively. It was recently renamed from Meaningful Use, but the concept remains the same: prove your expensive EHR system improves patient care, not just your administrative burden. It focuses on whether key digital workflows are in place, such as e-prescribing, health information exchange, and patient access to records.
PI focuses on specific actions. Are you e-prescribing? Exchanging patient information with other providers electronically? Giving patients online access to their health records? Implementing clinical decision support tools? These aren’t optional features anymore. They’re measurable requirements that directly affect your reimbursement.
This category accounts for 25% of your total MIPS score, making it just as important as Quality, Cost, and Improvement Activities. Get PI reporting right, and you protect your revenue. Get it wrong, and you’re looking at potential payment adjustments that swing up to 9% of your Medicare earnings.
How Promoting Interoperability is Structured
Promoting Interoperability is built around a defined set of objectives that focus on how providers use certified EHR technology in day-to-day practice. Each reporting year, providers attest to specific measures tied to these objectives and receive a score based on performance.
The program centers on four core focus areas:
- Electronic prescribing to support safer, more efficient medication management
- Health information exchange to enable secure data sharing between providers
- Provider-to-patient access to give patients timely access to their health information
- Public health and clinical data exchange to support broader reporting and surveillance efforts
Not every provider reports every measure. Requirements vary based on provider type, practice setting, and eligibility under CMS programs. Understanding which objectives apply to you is the first step toward accurate reporting and scoring.
Why PI Matters for Inpatient Providers
As an inpatient provider, you already know PI is required. But understanding why it matters beyond checking a compliance box helps you prioritize it appropriately. The stakes are higher than most providers realize, affecting everything from your bottom line to your daily workflow efficiency.
- Financial Impact: PI represents 25% of your MIPS score, which can mean payment adjustments of up to 9% in either direction, for most inpatient providers, which can mean tens of thousands of dollars at stake. Reporting accurately protects that revenue.
- Operational Efficiency: When implemented correctly, PI measures streamline your existing workflows rather than complicating them. Electronic prescribing reduces phone calls to pharmacies. Health information exchange eliminates faxed records. Patient portal access cuts down on administrative calls about test results.
- Better Care Coordination: PI requirements exist because they improve patient outcomes. Sharing information electronically with specialists, facilities, and primary care providers means fewer duplicated tests, better medication reconciliation, and smoother transitions of care for the patients you treat.
Understanding these requirements is the first step. The second is knowing exactly what you’re required to report and how the scoring actually works.
2026 Promoting Interoperability Reporting Requirements: What You Need to Know
PI reporting involves multiple moving parts. Reporting obligations vary by provider type, performance must be captured during a defined reporting period, and missing a required element can significantly impact scoring.
For 2026, eligible clinicians participating in MIPS must report PI measures using certified EHR technology. Performance is evaluated across your reporting period, and submissions must meet minimum requirements to receive any score at all.
PI Reporting Elements:
- Use of certified EHR technology throughout your reporting period
- Attestation to required PI measures
- Submission through approved CMS reporting channels
- Meeting base requirements before performance points are applied
Who Must Report PI
Most inpatient providers participating in MIPS are required to report PI unless they qualify for an approved exception. Requirements vary based on clinician type, hospital status, and organizational structure. Determining whether PI applies to your organization should happen early in the reporting year.
What PI Data Gets Reported
PI reporting is intended to demonstrate that these specific EHR functions were actively used, not simply available within your EHR.
- Electronic prescribing
- Health information exchange with other providers
- Patient access to electronic health records
- Public health and clinical data exchange
Reporting Period
CMS requires a minimum 90-day reporting period for PI measures. That means you must collect and report data for at least a continuous 90-day period within the performance year. You can’t cherry-pick your best days or combine non-consecutive periods to meet this threshold.
Many providers report for the full calendar year instead. It gives you more data points, reduces performance measure risk, and eliminates tracking a specific window. The performance year runs January 1 through December 31.
Data Submission
PI reporting happens through attestation. You confirm you met the requirements and provide supporting numbers. For base measures, that’s a yes/no answer. For performance measures, you report your numerator and denominator data.
You can submit directly through the CMS Quality Payment Program portal or use a qualified registry like Patient360. Direct submission requires manual entry. A registry automates the process by pulling data from your practice management system.
Deadlines typically fall in late January or early February. Missing the deadline means a zero for the entire PI category and payment penalties.
How PI Scoring Works
Your PI score is calculated on a 100-point scale. The category represents 25% of your total MIPS score. Here’s how the points break down:
Base Score (up to 50 points): Report required measures. These are yes/no attestations. You either completed the measure or you didn’t.
Performance Score (up to 100 points): Meet performance thresholds on specific measures. These are calculated from your numerator and denominator data.
Here’s a quick example. Report all required base measures and you earn 50 points. Meet performance thresholds at 80% and you earn 40 performance points. Add any bonus points for your total PI score out of 100.
Bonus Points: Additional measures can add points beyond the baseline.
What Score Should You Aim For?
You don’t need a perfect 100. Most successful practices target scores above 60, which demonstrates meaningful EHR use without requiring perfection on every measure. Focus on consistent reporting and meeting performance benchmarks rather than chasing maximum points.
Qualifying for a PI Exception
Not every provider can meet PI reporting requirements. CMS recognizes that certain circumstances make PI reporting difficult or impossible, and offers hardship exceptions that allow eligible providers to avoid the zero score penalty.
Common qualifying circumstances include:
- Lack of control over EHR technology, such as when a hospital or facility controls system configuration and reporting access
- Insufficient internet connectivity that prevents reliable electronic exchange
- Extreme and uncontrollable circumstances, including natural disasters, system-wide outages, or major disruptions
- Newly eligible clinicians who do not meet minimum reporting requirements during the performance year
Each exception category has specific eligibility criteria, and applying for a hardship exception requires documentation and must be submitted within CMS timelines. The process varies depending on which hardship category applies to your situation. Even categories that are automatically reweighted, such as small practice size, should be confirmed during reporting.
Requesting a PI exception should be a deliberate decision, not a fallback for missed reporting or incomplete data. If PI reporting is possible with reasonable effort, meeting the requirements is often the lower-risk option. If an exception is not submitted or is denied, the PI category scores as zero.
If you qualify for an exception, CMS will reweight your MIPS score, redistributing the PI percentage to other performance categories. This protects you from the payment penalty but means you won’t earn points from PI performance either.
For the most up-to-date information on PI hardship exceptions and application deadlines, visit the Quality Payment Program website. Claimocity can help you determine whether your practice qualifies and guide you through the application process.
Common Promoting Interoperability Challenges
Even experienced providers run into obstacles with PI reporting. Here are the most common issues:
Capturing EHR Data
Your system might have the right functions, but if workflows aren’t set up to capture data automatically, you might be scrambling at reporting time. Many providers discover too late that their EHR wasn’t tracking things correctly.
Monitoring Performance
PI measures require specific calculations. If you’re not monitoring these numbers regularly, you won’t know whether you’re meeting thresholds until it’s too late to course-correct.
Unclear Requirements and Exclusions
You may qualify for exclusions that aren’t always obvious. Reporting measures you could have excluded wastes time. Missing an exclusion can hurt your score if you didn’t meet the threshold.
Ignoring PI Throughout the Year
If you wait until January to get your reporting in order, you could discover missing data, configuration issues, and workflow gaps when there’s no time to fix them. It’s always better to be proactive rather than reactive.
The right tools and support eliminate most of these headaches. With proper EHR integration and expert guidance, PI reporting becomes routine rather than crisis management.
Best Practices for PI Reporting
Now that you know what to avoid, here’s what top-performing practices do differently:
Start Early
Don’t wait until the end of the year. Confirm whether PI applies to your organization and which measures you are required to report. Waiting until submission season increases the risk of missed requirements.
Build PI Into Daily Operations
PI measures should be part of your existing workflow, not separate tasks. Your EHR should automatically capture the correct data without extra steps for your staff. If your system isn’t configured to track this data, work with your EHR vendor to fix it early in the year.
Treat Base Measures as Non-Negotiables
Base measures are mandatory yes/no requirements. Missing a single required attestation results in a zero score for the entire PI category. Confirm each action is completed, documented, and supported by EHR data.
Monitor Throughout the Year
Review PI data during the reporting period, not just at year-end. Ongoing monitoring helps identify gaps while there is still time to correct them, particularly for measures tied to numerator and denominator thresholds.
Plan Submission Timelines
CMS deadlines are fixed, but internal timelines should be earlier. Build in time for data review and validation. Rushed submissions increase the risk of errors that cannot be corrected later.
Partner with MIPS Experts
PI regulations change frequently. Working with specialists who track those changes and understand reporting requirements eliminates confusion and reduces errors.
The right approach will turn PI from a compliance burden into a routine part of practice management. With proper systems and support, reporting will be automatic, not another headache.
Compliance Can Be Effortless With Claimocity
Most providers dread PI season. Claimocity users don’t. We make PI reporting seamless by integrating directly with Patient360, a CMS-qualified registry. Your practice management system feeds data automatically to Patient360, which handles measure calculations, attestation requirements, and submission deadlines. You’re not manually pulling reports or entering data into the CMS portal any longer.
Here’s what changes when you partner with Claimocity: Your EHR workflows are configured to capture PI data from day one. Real-time dashboards show your performance throughout the year, so you can identify issues while there’s time to fix them. Custom workflows make sure required measures are completed and documented properly. Built-in compliance checks flag potential problems before submission.
We stay on top of CMS changes so you don’t have to. Our team gives your team expert support throughout the reporting year. We track regulatory changes, clarify which measures apply to your practice, and confirm your data is submission-ready. When CMS updates requirements or clarifies guidance, you’re not left figuring it out alone.
Providers using Claimocity’s MIPS integration spend less time on compliance and skip the year-end scramble. Consider the January panic over. Your PI data gets collected automatically, and submissions happen without missing information or last-dminute discoveries.
