12/05/2015    Paul Kesselman, DPM

Will you receive a PQRS Penalty in 2016?

I have read with great interest the polling
results regarding PQRS penalties posted on this
forum. The polled responses I believe are
somewhat skewed to those individuals who were
subjected to the penalties, simply either because
they either chose not to participate, attempted
to perform this manually, or used a system which
did not track or automatically bill the
appropriate "G" codes when required. Certainly
there exists the possibility exists that CMS also
made errors. The system is fraught with not
having sufficient numbers of trained support
staff and the only way to get through is being
persistent or calling at the crack of dawn. The
appeals system appears to also be fraught with
problems and from those who attempted it appears
to be a nightmare with no positive results.

In speaking with those who use the same EHR in
the same manner as I do (ICS Software - AKA
Sammy), I have found no podiatrists who were
subjected to the penalty. This silent majority
using similar systems thus has likely not spoken
up because they are not subjected to the PQRS
penalties.

Additionally, far more MD/DO who are not
reporting in groups are effected by the penalty
than podiatrists. Yet MDs in solo practice who
use Sammy that I have spoken with and manually
input the required data seem to be less likely to
be subject to the penalty.

I was fortunate enough to get through this AM to
the CMS Quality Net Desk and they also informed
me that those who did use systems which could
report and track their PQRS status, were far more
likely not to receive a penalty.

The bottom line is that polls are only
reflections of statistics of those who bother to
respond. Isn't it more than likely that those who
are unaffected were less likely to respond than
those not subject to penalties?

The more important issue here seems to have been
forgotten: That is, practitioners are no longer
receiving a bonus for doing extra work, which in
many cases does absolutely nothing to improve and
actually detracts from the quality of care
delivered to the patient.

Those who didn't want to enlist in PQRS should
have been left untouched and those wishing to
continue to do PQRS (it was initially called PQRI
with the "I" standing for incentive) receive the
bonus!

Paul Kesselman, DPM, Woodside, NY

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