Population HealthPQRS ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
November 18, 2014

PQRS 2015: How Your Practice and Patients Can Benefit from New Population Health Measures

Good news for providers who have criticized PQRS as mundane and want to improve assessment of patient outcomes and reduce gaps in care: Medicare’s PQRS 2015 Rule is shifting away from rewarding fragmented quality services and toward population health. With the expansion of the related Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM), every group can turn population health into higher Medicare revenues, so long as you have strong, patient-centric processes—and data capture. If you don’t, you may suffer penalties. What’s a Cross-Cutting Measure and How Does It Work? CMS has established a set of Cross-Cutting Measures to provide a broader evaluation of care…
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PQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
November 11, 2014

Specialists at Risk: How To Navigate Hazards in Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing Programs

Heads up, specialty providers. The future of your practice may depend on three key components in Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing program. Especially if you work in an independent practice with a higher proportion of Medicare patients than many primary care physicians, your income and practice survival are at risk if you don’t understand implications of the new Rule for 2015. This is certain: You must manage the new environment to avoid penalties and losses under these programs. Most important are PQRS 2015, Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) and ACO Participation. That’s the foundation; with requirements getting tougher every year, you need to…
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PQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry Reporting
September 25, 2014

How to Integrate Strategic Quality Initiatives with PQRS Reporting: The QCDR Opportunity

For 2014 and beyond, CMS has created a new mechanism for PQRS reporting—the Qualified Clinical Data Registry. QCDR reporting requirements are the same as for a traditional Registry utilizing individual measures: A provider must report on at least nine measures. These measures must represent at least three National Quality and Strategy (NQS) Domains. Each of the nine measures must be completed for at least 50 percent of eligible patients or cases. However, a QCDR has features that can bring more to PQRS performance and reporting. QCDRs are designed to foster improvement in the quality of care provided to patients.  A…
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PQRS Reporting
September 15, 2014

Still Not Sure of Your PQRS 2014 Strategy? Delays Will Cost You

If your organization is just beginning to think about PQRS reporting for 2014, beware. End-of-year data collection is no longer enough to meet PQRS requirements. That’s because PQRS is no longer a quality “reporting” program; it’s now all about performance. In fact, waiting to determine your 2014 PQRS strategy until the last minute is actually very risky and could jeopardize both performance and future revenue. Although reporting through a qualified Registry extends your deadline (for 2014, CMS will not close its portal until March 31, 2015), the new Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) requires more lead time to demonstrate good results.…
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