Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

If you thought PQRI was all work and no reward, now you can reap the program's benefits.

In fact, you're due to receive your PQRI check sometime within the next month.

"We're quite excited about being at the stage where the physicians and other eligible professionals who satisfied PQRI reporting for 2007 will be receiving their bonus incentive payments," said Michael T. Rapp, MD, JD, director of CMS' Quality Measurement and Health Assessment Group, during a June 18 PQRI national provider call.

"Expect that to begin July 14," Rapp said. "And around the same time, we expect to have the confidential reports available so the information about reporting and performance can be looked at and evaluated."

Your confidential report will include financial information related to your tax identification number, with separate tables indicating the reporting rate and the measures that you could have reported, said Rachel Nelson, MHA, from CMS' Office of Clinical Standards and Quality during the June 18 call.

In addition, information in the report will allow you to benchmark your PQRI results against national averages.

You'll be able to access your report via a secure online mechanism, Nelson said.

Prepare now: Your PQRI payment should arrive without incident -- but accessing your report might take some preparation.

First, you'll need to have the free Adobe Acrobat software on your computer. In addition, you must complete the free registration to the Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Services (IACS) system.

Group practices or solo practitioners who want staff members to access their reports separately will need to register in the system as an organization -- that way, the various members of the practice who are registered will be able to access the reports separately.

Registration is free, but keep in mind that "it does take some time, especially for group practices, to get registered," Nelson said.

Group practices or solo practices that want additional staff members to be able to access the system should begin the IACS registration system right now, Nelson says.

Solo practitioners who only want to access their reports personally will find a more streamlined registration process but won't be able to register until June 30.

Information on registering for the IACS system is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MMAHelp/07_IACS.asp.

Keep in mind: If you normally submit your claims to multiple Medicare carriers, you may receive several PQRI checks, with the payment split among the different carriers, Nelson said during the call.