2026 # 191 MIPS Measure Cataracts: 20/40 or Better Visual Acuity within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery

2026 COLLECTION TYPE:

MERIT-BASED INCENTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM (MIPS) CLINICAL QUALITY MEASURE (CQM)

‌MEASURE TYPE:‌Outcome – High Priorit

Description:

Percentage of cataract surgeries for patients aged 18 years and older with a diagnosis of uncomplicated cataract and no significant ocular conditions impacting the visual outcome of surgery and had best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better (distance or near) achieved in the operative eye within 90 days following the cataract surgery.

Instructions:

Reporting Frequency:
This measure is to be submitted each time for denominator eligible cases as defined in the denominator criteria.

Intent and Clinician Applicability:
This measure is intended to reflect the quality of services provided for the patients receiving uncomplicated cataract surgery. This measure is to be submitted by the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) eligible clinician performing the cataract surgery procedure. Clinicians who provide only preoperative or postoperative management of cataract surgery patients are not eligible for this measure.

Measure Strata and Performance Rates:
This measure contains one strata defined by a single submission criteria.
This measure produces a single performance rate.

Implementation Considerations:
For the purposes of MIPS implementation, this procedure measure is submitted each time a procedure is performed. This is an outcome measure and will be calculated solely using Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) eligible clinician, group, or third-party intermediary submitted data.
• For patients who receive the cataract surgical procedures specified in the denominator coding, it should be reported whether or not the patient had best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better achieved in the operative eye within 90 days following cataract surgery.
• Cataract surgeries performed on patients who have any of the listed significant ocular conditions [comorbid] in the exclusion criteria should be removed from the denominator; these patients have existing ocular conditions that could impact the outcome of surgery and are not included in the measure calculation for those patients who have best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better (distance or near) achieved in the operative eye within 90 days following the cataract surgery.
• Include only cataract surgery procedures performed between January 1st and September 30th of the performance period.
This will allow the post-operative period to occur within the performance period.
• The measure, as written, does not specifically require documentation of laterality. Coding limitations in particular clinical terminologies do not currently allow for that level of specificity (ICD-10-CM includes laterality, but SNOMED-CT does not uniformly include this distinction). Therefore, at this time, it is not a requirement of this measure to indicate laterality of the diagnoses, findings or procedures. Available coding to capture the data elements specified in this measure has been provided. It is assumed that the eligible clinician will record laterality in the patient medical record, as quality care and clinical documentation should include laterality.

Telehealth:
NOT TELEHEALTH ELIGIBLE: This measure is not appropriate for nor applicable to the telehealth setting. This measure is procedure based and therefore doesn’t allow for the denominator criteria to be conducted via telehealth. It would be appropriate to remove these patients from the denominator eligible patient population. Telehealth eligibility is at the measure level for inclusion
within the denominator eligible patient population and based on the measure specification definitions which are independent of changes to coding and/or billing practices.

Measure Submission:
The quality data codes listed do not need to be submitted by MIPS eligible clinicians, groups, or third party intermediaries that utilize this collection type for submissions; however, these codes may be submitted for those third party intermediaries that utilize Medicare Part B claims data. The coding provided to identify the measure criteria: Denominator or Numerator, may be an example of coding that could be used to identify patients that meet the intent of this clinical topic. When implementing this measure, please refer to the ‘Reference Coding’ section to determine if other codes or code languages that meet the intent of the criteria may also be used within the medical record to identify and/or assess patients. For more information regarding Application Programming Interface (API), please refer to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website.

Denominator:

All cataract surgeries performed between January and September of the performance period for patients 18 years and older.

Denominator Criteria (eligible Cases):

Patients aged ≥18 years on date of procedure

And

Procedure during the performance period (CPT): 66840, 66850, 66852, 66920, 66930, 66940, 66982, 66983, 66984

Without

Modifier: 56 or 55

And Not

Denominator Exclusions:

Any of the following significant ocular conditions that impact the visual outcome of surgery: M1439

Reference Coding/Medication:

Denominator Exclusion for Significant Ocular Conditions [M1439] may be defined by the following coding only: Table 1 (Patients with documentation of the presence of one or more of the following significant ocular conditions that impact the visual outcome of surgery prior to date of cataract surgery which is still active at the time of the cataract surgery are excluded from the measure calculation.)
Table 1: Significant Ocular Conditions

Numerator:

Cataract surgeries with best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better (distance or near) achieved in the operative eye within 90 days following cataract surgery.

Numerator Options:

Performance Met: Best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better (distance or near) achieved within the 90 days following cataract surgery (4175F)

Or

Performance Not Met: Best-corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better (distance or near) not achieved within the 90 days following cataract surgery, reason not otherwise specified (4175F with 8P

Rationale:

In the United States, cataracts affect more than 24 million adults over 40 years (National Eye Institute, 2019). According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) (2021), cataract surgery has a substantial beneficial impact on visual function and on quality of life.

1. Scientific basis for measuring visual acuity outcomes after cataract surgery: The only reason to perform cataract surgery (other than for a limited set of medical indications) is to improve a patient’s vision and associated functioning. The use of a 20/40 visual acuity threshold is based on several considerations. First, it is the level for unrestricted operation of a motor vehicle in the US. Second, it has been consistently used by the FDA in its assessment for approval of intraocular lens (IOL) and other vision devices. Third, it is the literature standard to denote success in cataract
surgery. Fourth, work by West et al. in the Salisbury Eye Study suggests that 20/40 is a useful threshold for 50th percentile functioning for several vision- related tasks. Most patients achieve excellent visual acuity after cataract surgery (20/40 or better). This outcome is achieved consistently through careful attention through the accurate measurement of axial length and corneal power and the appropriate selection of an IOL power calculation formula. As such, it reflects the care and diligence with which the surgery is assessed, planned and executed. Failure to achieve this after surgery in eyes without comorbid ocular conditions that would impact the success of the surgery would reflect care that should be assessed for opportunities for improvement. The exclusion of patients with other ocular and systemic conditions known to increase the risk of an adverse outcome reflects the findings of the two published prediction rule papers for cataract surgery outcomes, by Mangione et al. (1995) and Steinberg et al. (1994). In both papers, the presence of comorbid glaucoma and macular degeneration negatively impacted the likelihood of successful outcomes of surgery. Further, as noted in the prior indicator, exclusion of eyes with ocular conditions that could impact the success of the surgery would NOT eliminate the large majority of eyes undergoing surgery while also minimizing the potential adverse selection that might otherwise occur relative to those patients with the most complex situations who might benefit the most from having surgery to maximize their remaining vision.

2. Evidence of a gap in care Cataract surgery successfully restores vision in the majority of people who have the procedure. Data from a study of 368,256 cataract surgeries show that corrected visual acuity (CDVA) of 0.5 (20/40) or better was achieved in 94.3% and CDVA of 1.0 (20/20) or better was achieved in 61.3% of cases (Lundstrom et al., 2013).

Additionally, data from a UK multi-center Cataract National Dataset found a postoperative visual acuity of 6/12 (20/40) or better was achieved for 94.7% of eyes with no co-pathologies and in 79.9% of eyes with one or more co-pathologies (Jaycock et al., 2009).

A rate of 85.5-94.7% of patients achieving a 20/40 or better visual acuity in the context of approximately 3 million cataract surgeries in the US annually would mean that between 160,000 to 435,000 individuals would not achieve a 20/40 or better visual acuity which suggests an opportunity for improvement.