Remember to Register for 2014 PQRS GPRO

Groups: Remember to Register for 2014 PQRS GPRO Participation by September 30

Eligible professionals (EPs) who wish to participate in the 2014 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) program as a group practice can now register for the group practice reporting option (GPRO).When your group is ready to register, you can access the Physician Value-PQRS (PV-PQRS) Registration System at https://portal.cms.gov. You will need to use a valid Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services (IACS) User ID and password to choose your group’s reporting mechanism. The registration system will be open until September 30 for the 2014 PQRS program. Additional information about the 2014 GPRO registration and how to register is available on the Self Nomination/Registration web page.

Participating as a Group Practice

Group practices participating in the GPRO that satisfactorily report data on PQRS measures during the 2014 reporting period (January 1 through December 31) are eligible to earn the 0.5% incentive payment and will avoid the -2% 2016 PQRS payment adjustment. To earn an incentive for the 2014 PQRS program year and avoid the 2016 PQRS payment adjustment, group practices with 2 or more EPs may register to participate in GPRO via:

• Qualified PQRS registry
• Directly from Electronic Health Record (EHR) using certified EHR technology (CEHRT)
• CEHRT via data submission vendor

If your group has 25 or more EPs, you can also participate in GPRO via:

• Web interface (reporting Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) for PQRS also required for groups of 100+)
• CAHPS for PQRS via CMS-certified survey vendor (supplement to other PQRS reporting mechanisms)

Value Modifier

In CY 2016, the Value Modifier will apply to groups of physicians with 10 or more eligible professionals and will be based, in part, on their reporting and performance on quality measures in CY 2014. These groups have two ways to participate in the PQRS in CY 2014 in order to avoid the -2.0 percent Value Modifier payment adjustment in CY 2016: group reporting or individual reporting.

• Groups that want to report under the PQRS as a group must register to participate in the PQRS GPRO by September 30, 2014 and report successfully to avoid the CY 2016 PQRS payment adjustment and to avoid the -2.0 percent Value Modifier payment adjustment.
• Alternatively, groups that want their EPs to report individually under the PQRS must have at least 50 percent of their EPs report successfully to avoid the -2.0 percent Value Modifier payment adjustment.

Groups between 10 and 99 EPs that satisfactorily report PQRS could qualify for an upward or neutral payment adjustment in 2016 under the Value Modifier based on their performance on quality and cost measures in 2014. For groups of 100 or more EPs that satisfactorily report PQRS in 2014, the Value Modifier could provide an upward, neutral or downward payment adjustment based on their performance on quality and cost measures in 2016. For more Information, please visit the Value Modifier web page.

Additional Resources

For more information about how to participate in the 2014 PQRS program through the GPRO, review the 2014 PQRS GPRO Requirements document. For questions about how to register, contact the QualityNet Help Desk at 866-288-8912 (TTY: 877-715-6222) or at Qnetsupport@hcqis.org.

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