Collect the CMS Bonus You Are Entitled to for 2009!
What is the CMS Physician Quality Reporting Initiative?
The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 required that CMS establish a physician quality reporting system. CMS titled the program the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).
It was further enhanced by the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.
The PQRI does not reward adherence to established standards of care, but rather rewards REPORTING of a designated set of Quality Measures
(QM). For each selected QM, the answer is, “Yes, I performed the QM,” or “No, I did not,” for either a medical reason or an unspecified reason. Physicians who successfully report on
30 consecutive Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service (FFS) patients seen before December 31st for a PQRI Measure Group or three individual measures for 80% of the applicable patients all their Medicare Part B charges will earn the 2% bonus.
Eligible professionals do not need to register to participate for the PQRI; they can participate by reporting the appropriate Quality Measure data on submitted Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service claims.
For hospitals, several of the CORE Measures that are already reported to CMS can be reported for PQRI as well.
According to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Quality Measure reporting and the utilization of E-Prescribing are the primary determinants of the “meaningful” use of an EHR. This is a key determinant of the Federal Government’s reimbursement of an EHR pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.