Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Published on Wed Aug 26, 2009 PDF

But you must be in PECOS before IACS will accept your registration, CMS officials warn.

CMS has made online access to your PQRI reports a snap -- the only catch is that you'll need to register in another online portal before you can see those reports.

To access your PQRI report, you must register in CMS's online system,  Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services (IACS), said CMS's Latasha Leslie during a Sept. 17 Open Door Forum.

Before you can register in IACS, you must have an approved enrollment record in PECOS, she advised.

Important: When you first access the IACS system, you'll register as either an "individual" or an "organization," which are defined as the following, Leslie noted:

• Individual: Those who do not reassign Medicare benefits to another party (such as an employer, partnership, or group) and will personally access their PQRI reports

• Organization: Those who receive reassigned payments (such as an employer partnership or group) from an individual professional An entity registering as an organization must designate a security officer (who can register the organization and update its profile but cannot access the PQRI reports) and a user group administrator (who creates and registers the group).

The user group administrator will designate the organization's end user, who is trusted to perform Medicare business for the organization, Leslie indicated.

For a reference guide on how to register in IACS or how to designate  your approved users, visit www.cms.hhs.gov/IACS/01_Overview.asp.

PQRI re-runs: If you were one of the many practices waiting for a second chance at collecting from the 2007 or 2008 PQRI, you could be in luck soon.

"The payments for the 2007 PQRI re-run will start in November of 2009," said Michael Rapp, MD, director of CMS's quality measurement and health assessment group, during the call. "That will be after the payments for the 2008 PQRI, which will start in October, and both of those processes should take about three weeks after the payment dates start."

Keep in mind: The PQRI re-run "is limited to those eligible professionals  who did not receive a bonus payment on the first go-round, to see whether, based upon modified analytics, they would qualify, and there were quite a number who did qualify, that will be receiving payments and reports." The feedback reports for the re-runs will be available toward the end of next month, Rapp said.