Home Forums Discussions Meaningful Use PQRS incentive program in addition to the Medicare/Medicaid Electronic

How do you do this in Amazing Charts?

The Physician Quality Reporting System incentive payments are available until 2014. Starting in 2013, EPs who do not report PQRS data will receive payment adjustments (-1.5%) for the Medicare payments they receive in 2015.

We've been told that we can't use Amazing charts to participate in PQRS because AC isn't a Medicare certified EHR. There was a conference call/webinar last week and I asked the question again. They said AC was not certified with Medicare and could not be used. They are going to make a change in 2014. An EHR will just have to be 2014 ONC certified for MU as well as PQRS. I don't even know if Amazing Charts is going to go for that! Does anyone?

I am confused as Medicare PQRI program does not even require an EHR - just the data and it would be difficult without an EHR. You need to describe the official name of the program you are participating in.

PQRS is the Medicare Physician Quality Reporting System. The most efficient way to attest that you meet the required measures is through reporting directly from your EHR. We have been told that a higher number of folks using the EHR reporting are getting the PQRS money. It does much better than for example claims-based submissions. To me, one plus of having an EHR is that you can run reports to collect the data. But, Medicare will not accept these reports from Amazing Charts. If claims-based reporting doesn't have the best success rate, we're left with burning hours to manually collect the data.

I used a registry which is a pain and took a staff member about 6 hours- it was a pain. It would work easier if I took the time to develop some HM rules about ACE Inhibitors, etc - would make it easier for staff to figure out.

Here was my answer a month ago.
AC is not currently set-up to transmit PQRS data directly. You CAN still get your incentive moneys (and can avoid penalties that begin in 2015). I would certainly agree that one role of an EMR is to automate that process and make it far less labor intensive. AC doesn't do that, but based on the preparations for the ACUC (the one that didn't happen in November), I can tell you that the company realizes this and is actively working on a solution. What I cannot tell you is when that will be available.

What's puzzling is that Amazing Charts has the Mediare Measures built into the MU Wizard. I don't know why they didn't self-nominate to be certified.

Pqrs reporting is a pain. I have reported on the diabetes measure group and have tracked the 6 reportable items in tracked data. It was a pain picking the 30 Medicare pts with the right billing codes for the right encounters but then all I had to do was print the tracked data for each and enter into the registry. I wondered if it would be worth the effort but it only took me a couple hours. The problem is that despite the reports being essentially the same, ever year they are just a tad different,e.g. This was the first year that the E&M code was part of the report. Other years, the visit had to be certain codes but you just needed to be sure they were. This year you had to enter the actual E&M code for the date. Tedious because with the registry that wasn't evident until you got into the registry to enter your data.

PQRS, IMHO, is why Medicare wants every provider to use an EHR. It's the baby steps for changing treatment over to evidence based medicine.

These registries are good for income now, but after EHRs are required, you will have to do this on every patient.

Resistence is futile.

Hi Jon,

Do you mind tell me the details about PQRS submission?

1. which registry did you use?
2. For 2013, when do you need to report? (Dec. 2013?)

Thanks a lot!

Cindy,
There are an assortment of registries. As a gastroenterologist, I used the one supported by the AGA. The process was not that bad for me. I had to identify 30 Medicare B patients seen in 2012 who had hepatitis C, and extract certain data on those patients. It was about two hours of work.
There are an a number of registries; I found this list from CMS. Hopefully you can find one that will work for you.
We are definitely moving from the carrot to the stick phase. When I first did this, the reward was 2% of Medicare billings, which was substantial. Now it is down to 0.5% (barely worth the effort). Soon it moves to a penalty.

Jon,

Thank you for the info. I am not really looking for incentive, just try to avoid the penalty. It will probably much more work for internists.

Anyone know what the final total hit will be if you don't MU, E-Rx, PQRS?

Instead of Medicare paying you, you pay Medicare $25 for every patient you see.

Now for the serious answer:
In 2017 the penalties max out (as they are defined now). There is no penalty for lack of eRx, 3% for no EMR, and 2% for no PQRS for a total 5% reduction in Medicare payments.

http://www.gastro.org/practice/quality-initiatives/cms-physician-qualitative-report-initiative

My bad but the way I figure it I'd rather see 1 extra patient a day then be a data input clerk

Koby, my view has always been that if the EMR is not helpful to you, then you are better off taking the 5% hit. Use the added time, investment, and energy to see additional patients. If my choices were limited to the Epic, Cerner, and Allscripts products that my employed colleagues use, then that might be my preference (though of course then I would be an employed and I wouldn't have a choice). With AC, there are annoyances, but they are outweighed by the advantages. IMHO.