Another PQRS option

Looking for a way to avoid the 2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) payment adjustment, a 1.5 percent penalty that will be based on 2013 program year data? If so, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing another option to individual eligible professionals and to groups that have elected the group practice reporting option.

The new option is the CMS-calculated administrative claims-based reporting mechanism for 2013. Instead of a medical professional or group submitting quality data codes on claims to CMS for analysis, the professional or group would submit claims to Medicare as normal and leave it to CMS to analyze those claims to determine whether they met the measures in question and thus successfully met the requirements of PQRS.

You can elect to participate in this reporting mechanism between July 15 and Oct. 15, 2013. To register, go to https://portal.cms.gov/ on or after July 15 and select the Physician Value (PV)-PQRS option, near the bottom of the page. However, before you do, make sure that you have an Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services (IACS) account, or add the appropriate IACS role if you already have an existing account. Registration for IACS began June 3, 2013, at https://applications.cms.hhs.gov.

CMS is providing at least two ways to learn more about this new option. One is online. The other is a national provider call on Wednesday, July 31, beginning at 2:30 p.m. (EDT). The national provider call will walk through the PV-PQRS registration system and then offer a question-and-answer session. For those who are unable to attend the call in real time, a call transcript and audio recording will be posted seven to 10 business days after the call.  To receive call-in information, you must register on the CMS Upcoming National Provider Calls registration website. Registration will close at noon on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so register early. The presentation for the call will be posted on the Fee-for-Service National Provider Calls web page. In addition, a link to the slide presentation will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the call. You may even be able to get continuing education credit for participation in the call; visit the Continuing Education Credit Information web page to learn more.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians