Wiki General Surgeons and PQRS Measure Group

[medicalsec]

I work for four very busy general surgeons, and they are still trying to muddle through the PQRS requirements for the 2013 requirements. We have not done this in the previous years. We definitely don't want to take a loss in 2015. With the hundreds of pages of explanation on the CMS site it makes it very difficult (referring you to section after section). I want to make sure that I am understanding what I have read. It would seem that the simplest way to meet the requirements for a busy General Surgeon would be to choose the one GROUP MEASURE for perioperative care with the 20 patient sample method (Measures 20, 21, 22, 23). The way I understood it is that if you performed all four measures on one patient that you could just report G8501 on your claim with the surgery that was performed, or if you did not perform all four measures that you would report all four measures on the one claim with the appropriate codes and exclusion modifiers. You would just put G8492 on your first claim and that would sign you up for the program. Am I correct? How are other small general surgeons office meeting this requirement. They really do not have the time to do the coding for every surgical patient.

I would appreciate any feedback?


Thanks,

Deb

 

[Callieb]

Pqrs

Deb,
It sounds like you understand pretty well. I believe each doctor has to have 20 eligible procedures and patients. Last few years it was 30 and It's not that easy to reach that goal. There are only specific procedures that count and it is per dr not per office.. Our office has never rec'd any money, ha, ha. We were two general surgeons and now just one. American Medical Assoc has a good " data collection sheet" we use that has cpts listed and it helps with record keeping. From what I understand, as long as we show we are trying even though we don't reach the quota we should not be penalized. Good Luck