Friendly Reminders: 2015 Meaningful Use Attestation & PQRS

Receiving friendly reminders can jog your memory to complete a project. Consider this your friendly reminder for 2 key Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiatives occurring in CY 2015 including Meaningful Use (MU), Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS).

The following information for MU attestation can be found here.

First, the MU program started for eligible professionals (EPs) in 2011, and payments will continue through 2016. Eligible professionals can participate for up to 5 continuous years throughout the duration of the program. Second, the last year to begin participation and receive an incentive payment is 2014. To receive the maximum incentive payment, EPs must have started participation by 2012. Eligible professionals who demonstrate MU of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology can receive up to $43, 720 over 5 continuous years. Third, to qualify for incentive payments, EPs must successfully demonstrate MU for each year of participation in the program. And lastly, it is important to note that beginning in 2015 EPs who do not successfully demonstrate MU will be subject to a payment adjustment. The payment reduction starts at 1% and increases each year that an EP does not demonstrate MU, to a maximum of 5%.

Read the rest of the MU information here.

In reviewing the CMS website specific to PQRS here, you will find a complete description of the reporting program. The PQRS is a quality reporting program that encourages individual EPs and group practices to report information on the quality of care to Medicare. The PQRS gives participating EPs and group practices the opportunity to assess the quality of care they provide to their patients, helping to ensure that patients get the right care at the right time.

In 2015, the program will apply a negative payment adjustment to individual EPs and PQRS group practices who did not satisfactorily report data on quality measures for Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule–covered professional services in 2013. Those who report satisfactorily for the 2015 program year will avoid the 2017 PQRS negative payment adjustment.

Read the rest of the article at Advances in Skin & Wound Care.

An excerpt from an article originally published in Advances in Skin & Wound Care, written by Cathy Thomas Hess, BSN, RN, CWOCN, VP and Chief Clinical Officer at Net Health