Part B News | Editors' Blog

Congratulations! Your quality performance score is 3 out of 100.

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Dec 19, 2016

CMS created a slow lane for the quality payment program next year to allow providers more time to get used to the new model. With minimal effort in 2017, providers can avoid a 4% pay cut. However, they'll still be graded, and Medicare will post their scores online, which could impact practice revenue.

New releases make QPP quality measure selection PDQuicker.

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Dec 15, 2016

Earlier this week, we noticed that the measures specification file on the CMS Quality Payment Program website was missing some specifications for claims-based measures -- for example, measure 1 (Diabetes: Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) Poor Control [>9%]). We

asked CMS' press office about the missing information and today we see they've indirectly answered the question. The claims-based specifciations are in there. But there's more in there and it will make measures selection easier.

As value grows, small practices struggle with IT adoption, risk sharing

by: Richard Scott Dec 12, 2016

Investments in health IT and financial risk-sharing are two big obstacles standing in the way of many small practices getting on board with value-based payment models, states a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Submittingcompleteinformationforthe informal review request doesn't have to be a squeeze.

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Dec 5, 2016

You have until Dec. 7 to dispute physician quality reporting and value-based modifier pay cuts. As Part B News has reported, the requests should be detailed because this is a provider or practice's only chance to convince CMS to take a second look at its decision. However, a subscriber noted that there is a character limit for the narratives that can be submitted with the requests and asked if there were any work-arounds. As it turns out, there are.

Procrastinators rejoice: CMS extends informal review request deadline

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Nov 30, 2016

Practices that meant to - but never got around to - filing an informal review request to dispute a physican quality reporting or value-based modifier pay cut still have time. CMS announced today that it will extend the informal review request deadlines to Dec. 7.

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