Seventy-five points: where the line sits, and what it does to a visit
CMS set the MIPS performance threshold at 75 points through the 2028 performance period. Above it a clinician's Part B pay is adjusted up, below it down. Every reported measure, depression screening included, is part of that score.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: The mechanics paragraph is a paraphrase, marked as such; measure weighting, bonus points and exceptions make any individual clinician's arithmetic more complicated than one screen equals one point.
Significant findings
The Merit-based Incentive Payment System turns dozens of measures into one score, and one number decides which side of zero a clinician lands on. CMS's fact sheet for the 2026 final rule states it: the agency has "set the performance threshold at 75 points through the CY 2028 performance period/2030 MIPS payment year."
That threshold is what makes a process measure like depression screening matter at the front desk. A clinician who reports it needs a high performance rate on it to hold up the quality part of the score, and the quality part is what the threshold is mostly made of. The rate is the share of eligible patients screened with a plan documented. Every unscreened patient is a point off; every screened one is a point on. That is why the tablet does not skip you.
Worth asking
None of this is hidden and none of it is dishonest; it is how the programme was designed to work. It does mean that when a clinic screens everyone, every visit, the reason is a threshold as much as a concern. Both can be true. What you can ask is the part the score does not measure: what happens to your result after the tablet.
Source
Calendar Year 2026 Quality Payment Program Final Rule Fact Sheet — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025)
Read the source: https://qpp.cms.gov/resources/document/415b524e-ce8d-4320-b398-e9592d27db73
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
We have not finished checking this source, so there is no scoring to show yet. “We have not checked this yet” and “this is disputed” are different statements, so no scored band is shown rather than a low one.
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published September 17, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: The mechanics paragraph is a paraphrase, marked as such; measure weighting, bonus points and exceptions make any individual clinician's arithmetic more complicated than one screen equals one point. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Calendar Year 2026 Quality Payment Program Final Rule Fact Sheet — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025). The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.