CMS approves Alpha II as a 2015 PQRS registry

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alpha II, LLC, a leading developer of software platforms, software as a service and publications that support the healthcare revenue cycle, announced today that it has been qualified by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Registry for the 2015 PQRS program year. The Alpha II Registry was granted this CMS distinction following an extensive five-month self-nomination and attestation process.

The CMS PQRS Program enables individual eligible professionals and group practices to use objective feedback from reported data to assess and improve their quality of care. The CMS-qualification allows the Alpha II Registry - formerly listed as MEGAS, LLC - to report PQRS data on behalf of physicians and physician practices using the Group Practice Reporting Option (GPRO) through a platform of data collection, editing and submission services. The Alpha II Registry supports all quality measures and all measure groups and serves all specialty-types and their varying clinical consultation and data collection needs.

"We are very proud that for the second year in a row, the Alpha II Registry has earned this CMS distinction," says Jan Powell, CEO of Alpha II. "While the CMS PQRS Program provides valuable feedback in order for physician practices to improve the quality and efficiency of care they deliver, the guidelines can be complicated and quite an undertaking alongside practicing medicine. Our secure, web-based registry not only works directly with physician offices, but also seamlessly integrates with existing systems, including electronic health records (EHR), practice management (PM) systems and clearinghouses. This significantly simplifies the reporting process and allows practices to easily report on-time, prevent duplicate entries and receive feedback in near real-time."

Previously, the PQRS Program was an incentivized program to encourage eligible practices to satisfactorily report data on specific quality measures for covered professional services. This year, however, CMS will instead apply negative payment adjustments to all eligible physicians who do not satisfactorily report.

"While the PQRS program is still considered optional for eligible practices, those who do not participate or meet the reporting requirements for the 2015 reporting year, will be penalized up to two percent of their reimbursement payments in 2017," Powell adds. "Our intuitive registry, along with our team's extensive experience with the PQRS Program, provides the technology and support to meet any and all physician practices' reporting needs for maximum reimbursement and actionable feedback to facilitate a more evidence-based approach to medicine."

For more information on the Alpha II PQRS Registry, please visit http://www.alphaii.com/Products/PQRS.

About Alpha II

Alpha II's software platforms, software as a service products and publications support coding, compliance, claims editing and revenue analysis for healthcare professionals, clearinghouses and government entities - both directly and through software developers. Beginning with the initial receipt of patient data through the final scrutiny of the payer's remittance advice, Alpha II empowers precision across the revenue cycle. The company's toolsets, data content and rules engines currently plug and play with electronic health record, practice management and hospital information systems to help their customers comply with the latest policies, standards and directives.

For more than 30 years, the Alpha II experienced healthcare professionals have worked together to gather, analyze, and interpret healthcare coding and billing rules and regulations. Additional information can be found by visiting www.alphaii.com, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

 

 

Around the web

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said the clinical community needs to combat health misinformation at a grassroots level. He warned that patients are immersed in a "sea of misinformation without a compass."