Not too late to earn Medicare bonus payment

Physicians interested in participating in the 2010 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) still have time to qualify for incentive payments. A new six-month reporting period begins on July 1. Physicians who wish to begin reporting for the second half of the year can qualify for an incentive payment of 2% of their total Medicare Part B allowed charges for services performed during the reporting period.

Physicians who have not yet participated in the PQRI program can begin by reporting PQRI data for July 1 through Dec. 31, 2010 using any of the following four options:claims-based reporting of individual measures for 80% or more of applicable patients on at least three individual measures or on each measure if fewer than three measures apply,claims-based reporting of one measures group for 80% or more of applicable Medicare Part B fee-for-service patients of each eligible professional (with a minimum of 8 patients),registry-based reporting of at least three individual PQRI measures for 80% or more of applicable Medicare Part B fee-for-service patients of each eligible professional orregistry-based reporting of one measures group for 80% or more of applicable Medicare Part B fee-for-service patients of each eligible professional (with a minimum of 8 patients).

Eligible professionals do not need to sign up or pre-register to participate in the 2010 PQRI. However, they should take some preparatory steps before undertaking PQRI reporting. Additional information about the PQRI, including instructions on how to get started, is available online. CMS also recently released a manual that describes the current PQRI program policies.