Decide how you are going to report NOW for 2017. Start collecting data now! If you know the measures now, it doesn’t matter what system you are on, you can build easy ways to track measures if you know what they are.

Decide how you are going to report NOW for 2017

There are multiple mechanisms for reporting:

Generally, reporting via registry or QCDR actually provides a dashboard and real-time performance results, alongside support services and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who know the ins and outs of the government and reporting landscape. Take advantage of what registries actually offer by consistently submitting data. When reporting using this method, don’t wait until the last minute to report because then there is no time to improve performance or quality of care throughout the year, which is the whole point of the program. Our mantra at Patient360 is “submit early and submit often.”

Other avenues of data submission include EMR direct, web interface, and good ole’ fashioned claims submissions. But remember, these methods do not provide feedback in real time, nor do they have a robust selection of applicable measures from which to choose. In addition, these options are generally completely online and mostly via government tools and resources that are at best, limited. If you have a good relationship with your EMR vendor and the measures they report are actually applicable to your specialty, then that could be a good match. However, too often, this is not the case.

Time and time again, registries receive frantic calls at the end of the reporting year from folks saying they thought their EMR was submitting measures for them all throughout the year. Well, the EMR did… but only certain measures and not the actual applicable measures to meet the requirements. This is going to be increasingly important for those actually wanting to score bonus money because selected measures must illustrate quality of care improvement and lowering of costs. There’s no way of knowing these improvements when an electronic submission occurs via a Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) file. It might be “quick and dirty,” but unless proactively working with your EMR to assure measure selection was incredibly strategic, many fall into the black hole of the CMS software analytics. Providers are left marinating for months before someone clicks a button to say sure, you passed… but no bonus money.

Once you have made a decision on the method of reporting, get those measures picked and pick a pace! There are multiple resources available now on the QPP.cms.gov website that explain the three (3) categories of measures you can select and which pace to choose:

Categories:

  • Quality (used to be PQRS)
  • Advancing Care (used to be Meaningful Use)
  • Improvement Activities (New)
  • Cost (doesn’t count in 2017)

Paces:

  • Test Pace – easy peasy! We call it the “MIPS 2017 Beginner Package” and if you DON’T do this or something like it, you are literally throwing money away. You only have to pick 1 measure and report on one patient to avoid a 4% payment adjustment. Who wouldn’t do this?
  • 90 days – still pretty easy and an opportunity for small bonus too! And of course, still avoiding that negative 4% payment adjustment!
  • Full year – kind of rock star status, if you have already been doing PQRS reporting for some time, give this a shot.

Start collecting data now! If you know the measures now, it doesn’t matter what system you are on, you can build easy ways to track measures if you know what they are. If you wait, you must go back and try to make measures fit, cull through data and notes… Waiting til later in 2017 will create an immensely frustrating and avoidable experience, especially when this year you can choose your pace. If you’re new to the game, just do the Test Pace to get your “feet wet.” It’s a free gift from the government. Take the gift! Happy 2017.