Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) deadline
The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) is a quality reporting program run by CMS that encourages eligible professionals (EPs) to report information on the quality of Medicare patient care. PQRS gives participating EPs the opportunity to assess the quality of care they provide to their Medicare patients, helping to ensure that patients get the right care at the right time.
By reporting on PQRS clinical quality measures, individual EPscan also quantify how often they are meeting a particular quality metric. The program will apply a negative payment adjustment to individual EPs and PQRS group practices who don’t satisfactorily report data on quality measures for Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) covered professional services. Those who report satisfactorily for the 2016 program year will avoid the 2018 PQRS negative payment adjustment.
The Physician Quality Reporting System ( PQRS) attestation deadline for the 2016 reporting year is March 31, 2017. The deadline for Meaningful Use attestation is March 13, 2017.
If you bill Medicare, it’s crucial for you to attest before the deadline to avoid penalties. The penalties for not attesting can add up to 6%. Physicians who do not report to PQRS will have their Medicare reimbursement reduced by at least 2% and if they also do not attest to meaningful use, they will lose another 2%. The penalties can go even higher for 2017 as failure to report to PQRS can add another payment adjustment between 2-4% in the CMS value-based modifier program for 2017.
PQRS Deadlines
PQRS Milestones | Deadlines |
---|---|
Reporting for the 2016 PQRS program year begins | January 18, 2016 |
Last day that 2015 claims will be processed to be counted for reporting | February 26, 2016 |
Reporting for the 2016 PQRS program year ends | December 31, 2016 |
2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Submission | March 31, 2017 |