Optometry Coding & Billing Alert

No need to register in the IACS system -- do this instead, officials say.

If the IACS process has your head spinning, CMS has a solution: You can now access your Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) feedback report by simply calling your carrier.

In 2008, you could only access your PQRI feedback reports after first registering in CMS's IACS system (Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services).

However, this made many providers unable to access their feedback reports, said CMS's Debbie Shannon during an Oct. 15 CMS sponsored open-door forum. Therefore, Shannon said, CMS is now offering another option.

"The alternative feedback request process will allow individual eligible professionals to request 2007 rerun and 2008 PQRI feedback reports using their individual NPI," Shannon said. "This process will also be available for distributing 2009 PQRI and e-prescribing feedback reports when the reports become available in mid to late 2010." You can use this new process effective Oct. 19, CMS officials noted. One caller asked whether physicians within a group practice who participated in PQRI can access individual physicians' reports using the alternative method.

Every individual, even those who are part of a group of more than one professional, who participated in PQRI,  can use the alternative method to get his or her individual report, said CMS's Michael Rapp, MD, during the call.

"The alternative process is only available to eligible professionals seeking feedback reports using an individual NPI," Shannon said. "However, eligible professionals who participated under a group practice can get their individual feedback reports as well."

To read more about the alternative process, visit the CMS Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0922.pdf.

Tip: If you choose to continue using the IACS system, keep in mind that if you haven't accessed your IACS account within the last 60 days, it could be disabled, said CMS's Latasha Leslie during the call.

If that takes place, you should contact the QualityNet help desk to re-enable your IACS account, Leslie noted.

The payments for the 2008 PQRI incentive program started in early October, Rapp said during the call, "so  many of you have perhaps already received your incentive payment for 2008." It takes several weeks for carriers to process all of the payments so they don't all occur at once, but all should be sent within the next three weeks or so, he noted.

Reruns of the 2007 data have been completed and those payments will come after the 2008 payments, in November. "The feedback reports for both the 2007 rerun and the 2008 program will be made available at the end of this month," Rapp said.

CMS publishes a guide for understanding the 2007 PQRI rerun incentive payments, which is available in the downloads section for the PQRI 2007 page, Leslie noted.

"A separate guide is available regarding 2008 PQRI," she indicated.

To read CMS's educational products on the PQRI program, visit www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI/30_EducationalResources.asp.