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********practices are invited to attend*******

PQRS 2013 Options Amazing Charts

Join Masspro as we discuss options still available to late joiners to PQRS Reporting.

Be Advised: a 1.5% penalty/payment adjustment on your 2013 Medicare Fee for Service will be applied to non-successful PQRS reporting.

Learn about PQRS options and some suggestions/ techniques so you can prepare your 2013 submission.

Amazing Charts will demonstrate how easy it is to address the PQRS measurements and develop the information for registry reporting.

Speakers:
Lorraine Wanham, Physician Practice Advisor at Masspro

Mark Dabeck, Product Support Specialist at Amazing Charts

Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm ET
Venue: Webinar
Register Here https://qualitynet.webex.com/ec0606...siteurl=qualitynet&confId=1173379716

or
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm ET
Venue: Webinar
Register Here https://qualitynet.webex.com/ec0606...siteurl=qualitynet&confId=1173371685


Contact us at ihpc@masspro.org with questions or for help with registration.

Masspro Health Care Quality Improvement

I would like to see a comparison study of practices that choose to PQRS report and those that do not.

It would be interesting to see the amount of physician and staff time required to successfully avoid the 1.5% penalty versus those practices that do not, and if there really is any significant difference in quality of care.

This AM my nurse and I were just noting the turn around time for a patient portal request and completion of the prescription. 9 minutes. The old paper chart days, would have been much longer.

So if one forgets to submit the V85 codes, other than wasted time and suffering the penalty what is the ramification?

Why do it?

I argue do not waste your time with this needless input of data, and I think time and common sense will bear this truth out. Rather focus on true patient care and improved efficiencies in the office. You and your patients will be happier.

Consider spending your time getting the Updox portal working effectively, which in turn will improve nursing efficiency, suck up the 1.5% penalty or opt out, see a few more patients a day, if you desire, but please spend your time being a doctor.

We in primary care are in the drivers seat. Just think of all options before making a decision out of fear.

Don't ever forget the lowest position on the totem pole is often an esteemed position of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific northwest. Placement at the bottom brings the figure closer to the people.

I had one staff member who spent about 4 hours doing the PQRS using a registry- cost me $200 for the registry and got the bonus. It all depends on how much 1.5% is.....

Steven,

I am still in the raw stage, but I spent a few hours burned a bunch of charts onto PDF's, had everything looked at and got denied because I did not enter v85 codes for weights.

One could argue if I had attended a conference as listed above that would not have happened.

But dammit, I am not going to spend an extra 30 seconds searching on every patent, their BMI and entering the V85 code and taking up a one of the only 4 slots to submit codes any way.

This does not enhance my skills as a physician and medicare can have their 1.5% or if it gets too much I will become nonpar or opt out.

And I am not going to pay my staff to do this for me.

I suppose one could argue I am letting 3K to 4K walk out the door. I can live with that.

However, I would make a counter argument that with the improved efficiencies with dragon, templating in AC and secure messaging with the portal, I am easily producing more, working smarter, and decreasing overhead costs and netting more money in my pocket than chasing after the government carrot.

But to me it is not about the money, it is about using the technology to make me a better doc, and if you can get the PQRS I am happy for you. I have partners doing it and I would not dissuade them either.

I guess I am getting stubborn with age.

That is frustrating. I don't understand why CMS would allow using a registry, whether it takes a few hours or many, many hours if the reason is higher quality care.

I guess they just want to acclimate us to being willing to do data collection for the government as well as adequate record keeping for the lawyers and patient care to actually make a difference.

Another bureaucracy to support.

Here is my prophecy and, as the board can tell you, I have been right more times than not. Before long it will go beyond bonuses and penalties. Laws will be passed that, in order to practice medicine in the state of such and such, and in order to see Medicare patients or those caught in the noose of specific insurance plans (read that as Obamashield), you will have to comply. Your license to practice will not be granted or renewed until you do so. Youze wanna be a doctor? Youze gotta do what da Family tells youze to do. Da Family don't like no outsiders!

We have powerful computers these days, hell my iphone is more powerful than my 25mhz Tandy desktop from the 1990's. There is really no reason why AC shouldn't be able to build in a simple page or tab or something that takes all this information (BMI, smoking, etc) and spit out the ICD-9 (or god forbid ICD-10) code that matches that prompts you 'AC has found that based on an analysis of your patients chart the following ICD codes are recommended for ..... would you like to add them to your chart?'

The software should be able to automatically do this...

I agree with Leslie at some point we'll all be forced to see medicare/medicaid at which point we might as well move to a single payer system like in the UK. I can have my government required office in one place and my private practice office across the street where I can make more.

Florida Providers

If you attended this event and still have PQRS questions, you may send your inquiries to FMQAI, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, at IHPC@fmqai.com

B. Wimbley

Was this event worthwhile? Anyone care to comment?
I am trying to decide if I want to listen-in next week....
Is it recorded online anywhere?

I viewed the Web presentation today. I give it a C+.

It's basically a Powerpoint on your web connected computer, with the audio coming in on your telephone. That's right, you need the internet plus a phone line. Despite this, the presentation was watchable.

It's not for the uninitiated however. If you know something about PQRS, there are some tidbits about using a Registry to report PQRS instead of the more common approach of the G-code billing reporting. And some bad news about penalties in 2015 & 2016, if you don't report by the end of 2013. But if you haven't done any PQRS, it was a rapid fire muddle. The chat boxes were a constant stream of "going too fast" and "what does xxx mean?"

Mark Dabeck of Amazing Charts did a good demo of extracting info using the Report function of AC. He demoed the process of drilling down into the data we are all collecting.

Unfortunately, if you haven't already submitted enough G-codes on bills already to qualify your 20 patients yet, you have precious little time. Or you will have to run the reports with AC and pay a 3rd party Registry to file them.

I recommend using the registry through ABFM if you are a member. It is free you need to collect info on 20 diabetic patients and can just enter online. You can pull encounters from Jan - Dec.


Email we received from them:

The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) and its Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) has been using incentive payments to encourage reporting participation for many years, and will begin to use payment adjustments in 2015 to encourage eligible health care professionals (EPs) to report on quality measures data. Beginning in 2015, the program will begin to apply a payment adjustment to EPs who do not satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered professional services during the 2013 PQRS program year. EPs who do not participate in 2013 and receive a payment adjustment will be paid 1.5% less by CMS than the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) amount for services provided in 2015.
The ABFM has been a CMS-approved registry for PQRS since 2008 and has helped hundreds of physicians satisfy the PQRS reporting requirements each year to receive incentive payments. See the highlighted information below for 2013 reporting and more details on our website at www.theabfm.org. If you need further details about the program, please refer tohttp://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/PQRS/index.html.

2013 PHYSICIAN QUALITY REPORTING SYSTEM (PQRS) REGISTRY AVAILABLE
? You are able to participate at no cost in the ABFM approved diabetes PQRS measures group registry online from your Physician Portfolio.
? Beginning in 2013, eligible professionals that do not satisfactorily report data on quality measures for the January 1, 2013 ? December 31, 2013 reporting period will be subject to the 1.5% payment reduction in their PFS amount by CMS in 2015.
? The deadline for entering your data into the module is January 10, 2014.

2013 ABFM PQRS SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
? You are only required to enter data for 20 diabetes patients between 18 and 75 years old, of which the majority (11) must be Medicare Part B beneficiaries.
? If you submit the required data successfully, you will be eligible to earn an incentive payment of 0.5% of your total allowed charges for PFS-covered professional services furnished during the reporting period (January 1, 2013 ? December 31, 2013).

MC-FP BENEFIT
? Any Diplomate who successfully completes our 2013 PQRS module can continue the activity for MC-FP credit and CME credit by implementing a quality improvement plan along with a post quality improvement data collection to complete the activity as a Performance in Practice Module (PPM).

PQRS:MOC
? New this year, the ABFM is also offering an additional PQRS-MOC incentive that Diplomates may be eligible to earn.
? Physicians who are eligible for the PQRS incentive can receive an additional 0.5% incentive payment when Maintenance of Certification Program requirements have been met.
? For more information on the PQRS-MOC incentive program, please refer to our MOC Incentive Guide 2013.

If you have any questions about the PQRS module or the new PQRS-MOC incentive bonus available this year, please contact the ABFM Support Center at 877-223-7437 or by email at help@theabfm.org.
Sincerely,
Debbie Medley
MC-FP Coordinator


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