CMS says rule would align quality reporting initiatives, reduce provider costs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule aims to align the physician quality reporting system (PQRS) with similar quality reporting initiatives to reduce the burden on providers, according to an Aug. 7 National Provider Call.

CMS said it hopes to increase physician participation in PQRS by 2015, at which point it will offer only payment adjustments and not incentives for reporting.

The agency also proposed an extension to a current pilot that allows eligible professionals to report for PQRS and the EHR incentive program using a single set of data. The proposed rule would allow eligible providers to report for both PQRS and the Medicare shared savings program using the web-based group practice reporting option.

While CMS hopes for higher participation in PQRS, it also wants to encourage providers who want to report, but are afraid of downward payment adjustments. For this reason, the proposed rule would exclude physicians reporting quality information through the value-based modifier program’s administrative claims option from payment adjustments in PQRS.

Additionally, CMS proposed adding to previously proposed quality measures, measures available for reporting using administrative claims data and measure groups, including osteoporosis, total knee replacement, radiation dose and oncology.

For slides from the National Provider Call, look here.