Merit-based incentive payment system participation and after-hours documentation among US office-based physicians: Findings from the 2021 National Electronic Health Records Survey.

BACKGROUND

After-hours documentation burden among US clinicians is often uncompensated work and has been associated with burnout, leading health systems to identify root causes and seek interventions to reduce this. A few studies have suggested quality programme participation (e.g., Merit-Based Incentive Payment System [MIPS]) was associated with a higher administrative burden. However, the association between MIPS participation and after-hours documentation has not been fully explored. Thus, this study aims to assess whether participation in the MIPS programme was independently associated with after-hours documentation burden.

METHODS

We used 2021 data from the National Electronic Health Records Survey. We used a multivariable ordinal logistic regression model to assess whether MIPS participation was associated with the amount of after-hours documentation burden when controlling for other factors. We controlled for physician age, specialty, sex, number of practice locations, number of physicians, practice ownership, whether team support (e.g., scribes) is used for documentation tasks, and whether the practice accepts Medicaid patients.

RESULTS

We included 1801 office-based US physician respondents with complete data for variables of interest. After controlling for other factors, MIPS participation was associated with greater odds of spending a greater number of hours on after-hours documentation (odds ratio = 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.06-1.95).

CONCLUSIONS

MIPS participation may increase after-hours documentation burden among US office-based physicians, suggesting that physicians may require additional resources to more efficiently report data.