ACO ReportingPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
August 18, 2015

Radiologists’ Tool Kit: How to Succeed in PQRS and VBPM

When it comes to PQRS reporting, it’s not easy being a radiologist. How can you fulfill PQRS reporting requirements and avoid jeopardizing future value-based payments? Many radiologists have found themselves backed into a PQRS corner—not enough measures to report, and those measures that can be reported have some tricky requirements. Similar to anesthesiologists, radiologists practice in a variety of settings and perform different types of procedures, according to sub-specialty. Depending on the procedures you perform, the vast majority of PQRS measures may not be applicable to you—not only are they clinically irrelevant, but you couldn’t report them even if you…
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ACO ReportingFuture of Health CarePopulation HealthQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingRegistry ScienceResearchValue-Based Payment Modifier
August 4, 2015

ACOs and the Referral Revolution Part 2: How to Align Objectives and Referral Practices

There’s no getting around it. Disruption in referrals under new Value-Based Health Care programs will upset both primary care and specialty practices under any change scenario. Physicians with historical relationships will undoubtedly resent an edict to redirect referrals, if they don’t understand or believe comparative data on cost and quality. On the other side of the equation, physicians who accept that aligning referrals with outcome data is part of being in an ACO will object if they see that referrals are driven, instead, by physician employment status. Every participant in an ACO must eventually accept that achieving shared savings will…
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ACO ReportingFuture of Health CareValue-Based Payment Modifier
July 28, 2015

Are Your Specialists and ACO Ready for the Referral Revolution? Part 1

The practice of physician-determined referrals to specialists is deeply embedded in the culture of medicine. But it no longer works under Value-Based Health Care. A revolution in referrals is underway, one that will dramatically change physician alignment and engagement in ACOs and other Pay for Performance models. Outcome measures can distinguish the performance of one specialist versus another—and this performance data is available to both health systems and physicians. We all know that pure comparative performance data has a lot of flaws. But Medicare is publishing provider-specific performance for PQRS and group performance for ACOs, and calculating comparative scores under the…
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ACO ReportingPQRS ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
July 7, 2015

Anesthesiologists’ Best Practices: How to Succeed with Medicare PQRS and VBPM

Anesthesiologists across the country are coping with a unique PQRS challenge. Different procedures and settings may mean that some practices do not have the requisite number of measures to meet requirements. Other groups will have enough measures, but the choices may not be obvious. When you have up to 6 percent of your Medicare Part B revenues at risk, you cannot afford to take that chance. Read on to learn how to make the best reporting decisions for your anesthesiology group and avoid Medicare penalties. Like Orthopedists, your specialty focus inherently limits your relevant PQRS measures—except that for Anesthesia, the options are…
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ACO ReportingPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
June 30, 2015

Orthopedists’ Survival Kit: How to Succeed with Medicare PQRS and VBPM

Pay for Performance success takes careful thought and management, particularly for specialty practices. Under Medicare’s PQRS and Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM), specialties have fewer measures available, which narrows reporting options—making it harder for you to meet PQRS and compare well against your peers. For Orthopedics, this is especially true. Nearly 200 PQRS measures have a Registry reporting option, but many orthopedic surgeons still have a difficult time finding nine measures across three National Quality Strategy (NQS) Domains (including one cross-cutting measure), where performance is good enough to report. All too often, orthopedic surgeons get trapped, reporting on measures where performance…
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PQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
February 3, 2015

PQRS Catch-22 for Specialists: How Medicare’s Division of Measures Can Put You at Risk for Penalties

If you are a specialist, maintaining your Medicare revenues just became more challenging. As of 2015, CMS now requires nine measures instead of three for PQRS reporting. They provided a partial reprieve by reducing the completion rate from 80 percent to only 50 percent. However, successful PQRS reporting is all or nothing—failure to report all nine measures within three domains will result in a penalty for both PQRS and the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) of 6 percent total in 2017. With more than 200 measures to choose from, you may wonder what’s the problem; surely you can find nine that…
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