diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider.go
index ce77f8f16148..fff26db5fb78 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider.go
@@ -190,10 +190,8 @@ func (mcm *mcmCloudProvider) GetResourceLimiter() (*cloudprovider.ResourceLimite
 	return mcm.resourceLimiter, nil
 }
 
-// Refresh is called before every main loop and can be used to dynamically update cloud provider state.
-// In particular the list of node groups returned by NodeGroups can change as a result of CloudProvider.Refresh().
-func (mcm *mcmCloudProvider) Refresh() error {
-
+// checkMCMAvailableReplicas checks if mcm is online
+func (mcm *mcmCloudProvider) checkMCMAvailableReplicas() error {
 	namespace := mcm.mcmManager.namespace
 	deployment, err := mcm.mcmManager.deploymentLister.Deployments(namespace).Get("machine-controller-manager")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -204,6 +202,18 @@ func (mcm *mcmCloudProvider) Refresh() error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("machine-controller-manager is offline. Cluster autoscaler operations would be suspended.")
 	}
 
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Refresh is called before every main loop and can be used to dynamically update cloud provider state.
+// In particular the list of node groups returned by NodeGroups can change as a result of CloudProvider.Refresh().
+func (mcm *mcmCloudProvider) Refresh() error {
+
+	err := mcm.checkMCMAvailableReplicas()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	for _, machineDeployment := range mcm.machinedeployments {
 		err := mcm.mcmManager.resetPriorityForNotToBeDeletedMachines(machineDeployment.Name)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider_test.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider_test.go
index a46393ebc386..cc7ef22900ed 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider_test.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/mcm/mcm_cloud_provider_test.go
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ func TestRefresh(t *testing.T) {
 	table := []data{
 		{
 
-			"should set available replicas of mcm as zero",
+			"should return an error if MCM has zero available replicas",
 			setup{
 				nodes:              newNodes(1, "fakeID", []bool{false}),
 				machines:           newMachines(1, "fakeID", nil, "machinedeployment-1", "machineset-1", []string{"1"}, []bool{false}),
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ func TestRefresh(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 
-			"should get no deployment of mcm",
+			"should  return an error if MCM deployment is not found",
 			setup{
 				nodes:              newNodes(1, "fakeID", []bool{false}),
 				machines:           newMachines(1, "fakeID", nil, "machinedeployment-1", "machineset-1", []string{"1"}, []bool{false}),