Notification: PQRS penalty to start Jan. 1, 2015

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 09:30 AM

On Monday, Nov. 10, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began sending letters to eligible professionals (EPs), including group practices, subject to the 2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) negative payment adjustment. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, the feds will apply a negative PQRS payment adjustment of 1.5 percent to payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for individual EPs and group practices who did not meet the criteria for satisfactory reporting in the PQRS for the applicable reporting period.

The PQRS is part of the effort to transform the health care delivery system by linking Medicare reimbursements to the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. To do this, individual EPs and group practices are required to participate in reporting quality metrics in order to help the federal CMS evaluate the quality of care they deliver. Those that do not participate in one of the quality reporting initiatives will see a negative payment adjustment beginning in 2015.