Individual providers and group practices facing a 2% payment penalty in 2016 for not meeting Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) requirements may ask CMS for an informal review of their reporting data to see whether corrections could wipe out the penalty.

Make sure your patients have neither a positive colonoscopy in their records nor a family history of colon cancer to clear any barriers to getting paid for the Medicare-covered at-home stool test that you can run every three years.

The experience of one of the more successful accountable care organizations (ACOs) in CMS’ recent report suggests that it pays for an ACO to invest heavily in extensive provider networks and in tools to support them — and if you can’t afford that, you should consider a less ambitious pay-for-performance model first.

Most denial rates for office E/M codes (99201-99215) were flat from 2013 to 2014, with three exceptions.Code 99211 had denial rates that jumped from 11% to 14%, 99201 increased from 31% to 33% and 99203 went from 10% to 11%, according to the latest Medicare claims data.

Create a safe-storage plan for your meaningful use records and carve out a long-term strategy to withstand a federal audit so your practice can keep those hard-earned incentive dollars.

You’re closer to knowing what CMS has in store for meaningful use stages 2 and 3 now that, as of press time, the Office of Management and Budget has those rules under review.

Use this checklist as a guide to plan ahead and understand which documentation you may need to produce if you're audited for meaningful use.