The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has published several new resources intended to help doctors of chiropractic (DCs) with proper implementation of Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS).
Eligible professionals who do not satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered professional services will be subject to a PQRS negative payment adjustment (pdf) beginning in 2015. The PQRS payment adjustment applies to all of the eligible professional’s Part B covered professional services under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). Accordingly, eligible professionals receiving a payment adjustment in 2015 will be paid 1.5% less than the MPFS amount for that service. For 2016 and subsequent years, the payment adjustment is 2.0%.
As ACA notes, DCs can avoid the 2 percent deduction to their 2017 Medicare reimbursement by successfully and satisfactorily reporting PQRS measures for “Pain Assessment and Follow-Up” and “Functional Outcome Assessment” during this year’s reporting period (January 1 – December 31, 2015).
ACA has published a new FAQ explaining how the payment adjustments must be applied and DCs can navigate the new 2015 MPFS format.
ACA also provides links to:
- Getting Started with PQRS 2015: A Guidebook for Doctors of Chiropractic (pdf)
- CMS 2015 measure specifications: Measure #131: Pain Assessment and Follow-Up (pdf) and Measure #182: Functional Outcome Assessment (pdf)
Additional resources and information can be found on ACA’s webpage dedicated to PQRS.
It is difficult for DCs to receive proper compensation for services provided. Not only must chiropractors properly and successfully report on PQRS measures to avoid deductions in payment, but chiropractic coding and billing errors frequently lead to denied and misadjudicated claims.
To avoid leaving money on the table, more chiropractors are outsourcing their billing to PGM Billing, a leading chiropractic billing company. For more than 30 years, DCs have trusted PGM’s chiropractic billing service to manage all aspects of their billing to help ensure they always collect what they deserve.