With potential penalties for failure to satisfy the 2014 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) requirements equaling up to 4 percent of Medicare payments, or approximately $2,500 per provider, ACEP has negotiated with CE City, a leading registry vendor, to provide a discount to our members. As a member benefit, ACEP is providing ACEP, Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), and Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA) members with $100 off the $299 per provider fee. ACEP has negotiated a deeper discount of 10 percent off for groups of 10 or more and 15 percent off for groups of 20 or more. Visit ACEP’s PQRSwizard site to take advantage of this member benefit.

PQRS Reporting Requirements: Report as Individuals a Group

For 2014, a group of 10 or more eligible professionals may avoid the 2 percent PQRS penalty as well as the 2 percent value-based modifier penalty (both applied to 2016 payments), if 50 percent or more of the individual eligible professionals in the group satisfy PQRS reporting requirements in 2014. Even just one Medicare fee-for-service claim for the calendar year qualifies a provider (physician or midlevel) as an eligible professional in a group for purposes of the 50 percent threshold.

Please note, eligible professionals in the group who do not submit PQRS measures will still be subject to the PQRS payment adjustment of 2 percent. To avoid the VBM penalty, at least 50 percent of individual eligible professionals in a group must meet the minimum PQRS reporting requirements. The choice of whether to report as individuals or to report as a group is up to your group. For more information on these requirements please visit www.acep.org/quality/pqrs.

Group Practice Reporting Option: Deadline Sept. 30, 2014

If your group decides to participate in the 2014 PQRS Group Practice Reporting option (GPRO), the group is required to register through the Physician Value-Physician Quality Reporting System (PV-PQRS) registration system by Sept. 30, 2014. This registration process can take up to two weeks, so start now! Groups will need an Individuals Authorized Access to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Computer Services (IACS) account to access the PV-PQRS registration system. Registration lets CMS know which groups want to be analyzed at the group level (or TIN-level analysis).

During registration, the group practice will need to indicate the size of their group at the time they register. GPRO group size is based on the number of eligible professionals including physician assistants and nurse practitioners billing under the TIN. Be sure that your group’s Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) information is updated for before you begin registration. The CMS website has additional information about IACS and 2014 PQRS GPRO registration.

The Decision Is Yours

Whatever your decision—to report as a group via GPRO registry or to report as individuals—the ACEP PQRSwizard registry option will be available for you. Although you can upload quality data codes from your practice management, coding, or billing software to the portal through February of 2015, you must complete the PV-PQRS registration process by Sept. 30, 2014 if you want to participate via GPRO. If you plan to report as individuals, you can sign up through Dec. 31, 2014.