PQRI reporting on the Medicare Part B FFS patients provides 2 percent bonuses in
2009 and 2010 on all Part B FFS revenues; most importantly it is one of the keys
to the treasure chest of $50 billion dollars of IT entitlements provided by the
ARRA/HiTech Act. An additional 2 percent bonus can be earned by utilization of our
eRX system.
There are 153 individual PQRI quality measures however, 18 of the measures can only
be reported through a Registry. An eligible health care provider can choose to report
on individual measures or a Measure Group. For each PQRI measure, the answer is,
“Yes, I performed the measure,” or “No, I did not,” for either a “medical reason”
or an “unspecified reason.”
An eligible healthcare provider (HCP) should report on as many measure groups or
individual measures as are applicable to one’s medical practice. The PQRI bonuses
are based upon minimally reporting on 1 measure group or 3 individual measures*
The threshold for successful patient reporting is based on either reporting on 30
consecutive patients** or on 80% of all Medicare Part B FFS patients.
*For certain medical specialties only 1 or 2 measures may apply, yet these specialists
can still earn the bonus. More than 30 medical associations have endorsed specific
PQRI quality measures or measure groups.
**Uniquely, if Registry reporting for a Measure Group is selected, then only 2 of
the 30 consecutive patients must be Medicare Part B FFS.