PQRS – CMS’ Awkward Middle Child

marsha-brady4-Day Workshop on Understanding PQRS

By Joy Rios, Managing Partner at Practice Transformation
Twitter: @askjoyrios

PQRS. Another healthcare acronym that is anything but enticing. What? You don’t know, or maybe more accurately, don’t care about these four letters? You’ve been occupied with other healthcare acronyms, mainly EHRs, MU, ICD-10, or HIPAA.

That’s fair, they’re all important. But PQRS, is like a middle child – Jan Brady, if you will – who wants attention so badly, but can only cry in frustration when Greg praises Marcia for an idea that she had two days ago. It’s not fair, why does Marcia get all the credit? Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Except in this scenario Marcia is Meaningful Use, or even more specifically, the Clinical Quality Measures that are part of the MU program, and PQRS had the idea seven years ago!

You see, PQRS – the Physician Quality Reporting System – has been around since 2007 as a voluntary program for providers to receive an incentive for reporting quality measures. Unfortunately, the incentive wasn’t enough to get most providers to go through the trouble of collecting more data and has been largely ignored. But now, the incentive is running out and penalties are taking its place. In fact, providers who didn’t report PQRS in 2013 will be getting hit with a 2 percent penalty in 2015 and those that don’t report this year will get an additional 2 percent penalty in 2016. Also, if your organization has 20 or more providers, you may also be subject to the Value Based Payment Modifier – an additional 2 percent hit to Medicare Part B reimbursements.

There are more than 250 quality measures that can be reported for PQRS through more than 6 methods. The measures you choose to report will depend on your specialty, your practice size, your EHR’s capabilities and your participation status in the Meaningful Use program.

Want to cut through the red tape? Want to find out if you can submit quality measures for both programs in one fell swoop? Want to ask a subject matter expert for practical guidance on your organization’s situation?

Well, here’s your chance. 4Medapproved is hosting a 4-day workshop series on understanding PQRS. For just one hour a day, you can formalize a plan to submit quality measures for both the PQRS and the Meaningful Use program, allowing you to avoid unnecessary penalties for your organization and shine as the hero who was willing to go where no (wo)man dared to go before.

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4Medapproved Accelerated Certification Workshops

Join Joy’s upcoming workshop: Become a PQRS/CQM Project Manager in 4 Days (1 hour/day).

When: 12pm ET/11am CT, July 30, July 31, August 6, and August 7.

Receive $100 discount when registering through HITECH Answers.

Register Today