A number of anesthesiologists have expressed confusion about the requirements for reporting Physician Quality Reporting System measures next year, however it is important they successfully participate in 2015 because failure to do so will result in a 2 percent reduction in their Medicare payments in 2017, according to an Anesthesia Business Consultants blog post.
There are five methods for submitting PQRS data to CMS:
• Claims-based reporting (on Medicare Part B claims)
• Registry-based reporting
• Electronic health record reporting using certified EHR technology or a data submission vendor
• Qualified clinical data registry reporting
• Group practice reporting
While these methods had previously been established, CMS has proposed significant changes to the numbers and types of measures that must be reported. But the good news is the Anesthesia Quality Institute is offering a new way for anesthesia practices to track quality and participate in the PQRS program. It has received certification for the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry as a QCDR, which offers an alternative method to report quality measures. Also, claims-based reporting remains a reasonable method for reporting PQRS measures as well.
Anesthesiology practices interested in exploring the QCDR option should begin by considering which nine of the 19 QCDR measures they will want to report and how they will go about collecting the data.
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