Earn your Improvement Activities score by selecting and completing qualifying activities that improve care delivery, patient safety, and care coordination — tailored to your practice size and type.
Improvement Activities reward clinicians for implementing care improvement processes. Activities are high-weight (20 points each) or medium-weight (10 points each). You need 40 points total to achieve full credit.
| Practice Type | Points Needed | High-Weight Options | Medium-Weight Options | APM Participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Practice | 40 points | 2 high-weight activities (20 pts each) | 4 medium-weight activities (10 pts each) | See below |
| Small Practice (≤15 clinicians) | 20 points | 1 high-weight activity | 2 medium-weight activities | Full credit automatically |
| Non-Patient Facing Clinicians | 20 points | 1 high-weight activity | 2 medium-weight activities | Full credit automatically |
| Rural / Health Professional Shortage Area | 20 points | 1 high-weight activity | 2 medium-weight activities | Full credit automatically |
| MIPS APM / APP Participants | Full credit automatically | APP and APP Plus participants receive full Improvement Activities credit without separate attestation | ||
Each high-weight activity is worth 20 points. Completing 2 high-weight activities earns full IA credit for standard practices. These activities focus on the highest-impact care improvements.
Provide 24-hour/7-day access to MIPS eligible clinicians or groups who have real-time access to patient's medical record and care plan for after-hours urgent care needs.
Implement processes to develop and communicate a care plan for patients with complex medical needs including documentation and sharing of the care plan with the patient and next provider.
Implement a program that regularly trains and supports multidisciplinary care teams to improve care coordination, including communication strategies and shared decision-making protocols.
Administer the AHRQ Safety Culture Survey or other valid safety culture survey and use results to implement quality improvement activities to improve safety culture in the practice.
Promote the practice's engagement with patients and their families, guardians or caregivers through the use of shared decision-making tools and techniques.
Provide stratified performance data broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, or other demographic factors to identify and address health disparities.
Established protocols and care pathways to systematically identify patients with behavioral health conditions and connect them with appropriate behavioral health services.
Participation in the CDC Project ECHO program to improve the management of complex chronic conditions through virtual specialist-to-primary-care mentoring.
Medium-weight activities are worth 10 points each. Completing 4 earns full credit for standard practices. These offer broad flexibility across care settings and specialties.
| Activity ID | Activity Title | Subcategory |
|---|---|---|
| IA_EPA_2 | Use of Alternative Care Sites or Telehealth | Expanded Practice Access |
| IA_EPA_3 | Collection and Use of Patient Experience Data | Expanded Practice Access |
| IA_EPA_4 | Provide Same-Day Appointments for Urgent Needs | Expanded Practice Access |
| IA_EPA_5 | Participation in Voluntary Practice Improvement Registries | Expanded Practice Access |
| IA_CC_1 | Implementation of Improvements to Workflow or Care Processes | Care Coordination |
| IA_CC_3 | Implementation of Chronic Care Management Services | Care Coordination |
| IA_CC_4 | Implementation of Evidence-Based Decision Aids for Patients | Care Coordination |
| IA_CC_8 | Completion of Training and Use of Specific Diagnostic Criteria for Common Behavioral Health Disorders | Care Coordination |
| IA_PSPA_1 | Use of Clinical Registries | Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
| IA_PSPA_3 | CDC Training on Antibiotic Stewardship | Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
| IA_PSPA_4 | Administration of Antibiotic Stewardship Program | Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
| IA_PSPA_5 | Participation in MOC Part IV | Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
| IA_PSPA_12 | Use of Patient Safety Tools | Patient Safety and Practice Assessment |
| IA_BE_1 | Engage Patients and Families to Guide Improvement in the System | Beneficiary Engagement |
| IA_BE_4 | Engage Patients in Shared Decision Making | Beneficiary Engagement |
| IA_BE_5 | Enroll New and Existing Patients in Patient Portal | Beneficiary Engagement |
| IA_BE_11 | Regularly Assess the Patient Experience of Care | Beneficiary Engagement |
| IA_AHE_2 | Leveraging a QCDR to Support Achieving Health Equity | Achieving Health Equity |
| IA_AHE_3 | Provide Patients with Resources for Self-Management of Health Conditions | Achieving Health Equity |
| IA_BMH_1 | Utilize Mental Health Tools Aligned with Clinical Practice Guidelines | Integrated Behavioral Health |
| IA_BMH_2 | Tobacco Use | Integrated Behavioral Health |
| IA_BMH_4 | Implement Depression Screening | Integrated Behavioral Health |
| IA_BMH_8 | Electronic Health Record Enhancements for BH Data Capture | Integrated Behavioral Health |
| IA_ERP_1 | Participation in Joint Commission Evaluation Initiative | Emergency Response & Preparedness |
| IA_ERP_2 | Participation in a 60-Day or Greater Emergency Preparedness Exercise | Emergency Response & Preparedness |
Improvement Activities are organized into 8 subcategories. You may choose from any subcategory — there is no requirement to select from a specific one unless participating in a specific MVP.
Activities that improve after-hours care access, telehealth utilization, same-day appointments, and geographic reach to underserved areas.
Activities improving transitions of care, chronic care management, multidisciplinary team collaboration, and care plan communication across providers.
Activities addressing safety culture, antibiotic stewardship, maintenance of certification (MOC Part IV), clinical registry use, and EHR safety enhancements.
Activities that increase patient involvement in their care, including shared decision-making, patient portal enrollment, experience surveys, and care plan co-development.
Activities targeting disparities in care quality, including collection and use of race/ethnicity/socioeconomic data, language access, and underserved population outreach.
Activities that integrate mental health, substance use disorder, and behavioral health care into primary and specialty care settings through screening and collaboration.
Activities demonstrating practice preparedness for public health emergencies, disasters, and crisis events, including participation in preparedness exercises.
Population-level activities focused on reducing health disparities through data-driven quality improvement, community health partnerships, and social determinants of health (SDOH) screening.
Dagger Healthcare Solutions helps practices identify qualifying Improvement Activities, create documentation evidence, and achieve full IA credit efficiently.
