PQRI incentive payments now being sent

Medicare began distributing incentive payments for the 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative program last week. All payments are scheduled to be distributed by Nov. 12.

The feedback reports for the 2009 program will be available online the second week of November at the Physician and Other Health Care Professionals Quality Reporting Portal. You must be registered through the CMS security system known as Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services (IACS) to use the portal.

Realizing that many physicians have had great difficulty registering for the IACS system, CMS also enables physicians to call their Medicare contractor to request their feedback report. The phone number for each contractor Provider Contact Centers is available online. The contractor will ask you to provide an email address and you will then receive your report within 30 days. You can also ask the contractor status and amount of your PQRI incentive payment.

There is still time to begin your participation in the 2010 CMS Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and potentially qualify to receive incentive payments equal to 2% of total Medicare Part B allowed charges. The current 6-month reporting period began on July 1, 2010. The claims-based or registry-based reporting options are available.

There is no sign-up or registration needed for the program, but there are a few advance steps that you can take before you begin PQRI reporting. Details about how to participate in PQRI are available at cms.hhs.gov/PQRI/ on the CMS website.