CMS is waving some penalties associated with failure to meet physician quality reporting system requirements because of incomplete updates to the ICD-10 code sets, according to an American Academy of Family Practitioners report.
Here's what you need to know.
1. CMS is waiving the 2017 or 2018 PQRS payment adjustments to physicians that failed to "satisfactorily report for 2016 solely as a result of the impact of ICD-10 code updates on quality data reported for the fourth quarter of 2016."
2. The ICD-10 updates are closely related to the quality reporting standards.
3. The waiver is only eligible for physicians who failed to meet reporting because of ICD-10 codes.
4. Sandy Pogones, a certified professional in healthcare quality and the AAFP's senior strategist for healthcare quality, said family physicians were grateful for the waivers.
"There has been a lot of concern on the part of our members about how all of these changes in the implementation of ICD-10 would impact their quality reporting," Ms. Pognoes said. "And now CMS is saying, 'Don't worry about it. If ICD-10 impacts your reporting, you will not be hit with a negative payment adjustment.'"
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