CMS and PQRI: CMS Announces List of Qualified Registries for 2009 PQRI

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the list of qualified registries for 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) reporting. Each of these registries has gone through a thorough vetting process to check their capability to provide the required PQRI data elements, ensure correct calculation of reporting and performance rates, and complete transmission of the required information in the requested file format. There are a total of 74 qualified registries this year, up from 32 registries in 2008. Eight of the 74 registries are able to report all five of the measures (Measures # 10, 11, 145, 146, 147 — click here for more info on these measures) related to diagnostic radiology and are currently accepting new participants. Click here for a list of the qualified registries. The eight registries capable of reporting each of the radiology measures have been highlighted.

CMS also recently published a guidance document for 2009 PQRI reporting that offers step-by-step instructions on how to get started on PQRI. CMS encourages that it is not too late to consider participating in 2009. If a physician or other eligible professional (EP) would like to participate in 2009, successful reporting could be accomplished through the use of a qualified registry. However, in order to “registry report,” a radiologist would need to report at least three measures.

For more reporting guidance read this document from CMS, visit the CMS PQRI Web site or the ACR Web site.

You may also contact p4pquestions@acr.org.