Anesthesia Coding Alert

Pain management e-prescribers may be up for a bonus. If your pain management doc regularly gives prescriptions to her patients, there may be bonus reimbursement lurking within the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). PQRI is a voluntary individual reporting program which offers an incentive payment to eligible professionals (EPs) satisfactorily reporting data on quality measures for covered Physician Fee Schedule services furnished to Medicare Part B beneficiaries. In 2009, the incentive is 2 percent of the EPs estimated total Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) allowed charges. CMS is also working on the first year of the E-Prescribing Incentive Program, in which EPs indicate on their claims through special G codes whether they take advantage of the benefits of a qualified e-prescribing system. It is not too late to participate in the 2009 PQRI and E-Prescribing Incentive Programs, says Michael T. Rapp,MD, JD, FACEP, of CMS. There is still [...]