(a) General rule. Except as specified in paragraph (b) of this section, CMS—

(1) Applies determinations made under the Quality Payment Program for whether an extreme and uncontrollable circumstance has occurred and the affected area during the ASM performance year; and

(2) Has sole discretion to determine the period during which an extreme and uncontrollable circumstance occurred.

(b) Additional criteria. (1) CMS has sole discretion to determine, based on information known to the agency prior to the beginning of the relevant ASM payment year, that data for an ASM participant are inaccurate, unusable, or otherwise compromised due to circumstances outside of the control of the clinician and its agents, including third-party intermediaries.

(2) CMS notifies ASM participants of the following:

(i) Its determination that the circumstances described at paragraph (b)(1) of this section exist; and

(ii) The impact of the circumstances described in paragraph (b)(1) of this section upon scoring methodology for affected ASM participants in a form and manner determined by CMS.

(c) Impact on final scores. (1) Except as described in paragraph (c)(2) of this section, an ASM participant who CMS identified as having been affected by a circumstance described in paragraphs (a) or (b) of this section is exempt from meeting data submission requirements identified at § 512.720 and does not receive a final score, resulting in a neutral payment adjustment for the corresponding ASM payment year.

(2) In the event that an ASM participant who CMS identified as having been affected by a circumstance described in paragraph (a) or (b) of this section submits data in accordance with the data submission requirements at § 512.720, CMS assigns the ASM participant a final score using the methodology described at § 512.745 for the applicable ASM performance year.