CMS News

The following information has been received by ANCO.


****CMS NEWS****
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum (ODF) on February 12th at 3PM ET to discuss the 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). This call will be geared to those eligible professionals planning to participate in the PQRI for the first time in 2009 and will cover the basics of how to satisfactorily report the 2009 PQRI quality measures through claims-based reporting.

During this Special ODF, CMS staff will discuss the basics of how to satisfactorily report the 2009 PQRI quality measures through claims-based reporting. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions.

Additional Information
For information about the PQRI, including educational products, go to www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI.

We look forward to your participation.
Special Open Door Forum Participation Instructions:
Dial: 1-800-837-1935 Conference ID 83501646
Note: TTY Communications Relay Services are available for the Hearing Impaired.
For TTY services dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880 and for Internet Relay services click here http://www.consumer.att.com/relay/which/index.html

A Relay Communications Assistant will A Relay Communications Assistant will help.
An audio recording of this Special Forum will be posted to the Special Open Door Forum website at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/OpenDoorForums/05_ODF_SpecialODF.asp and will be accessible for downloading beginning February 20, 2009.

For automatic emails of Open Door Forum schedule updates (E-Mailing list subscriptions) and to view Frequently Asked Questions please visit our website at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/opendoorforums/


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that a new educational resource has been posted to the Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing) Incentive Program section page on the PQRI web page.

The following item is available for download on the E-Prescribing section page:

2009 Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program Made Simple - This Fact Sheet provides detailed information on how to participate in the 2009 Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing) Incentive Program by reporting the E-Prescribing measure.

To access this new, and all, available E-Prescribing educational resources, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI on the CMS website and click on the Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program tab. Once on the E-Prescribing page, scroll down to the “Downloads” section and click on the “2009 Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program Made Simple” link.


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that updates to many of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) on the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) are now available on the PQRI webpage. A number of FAQs have been revised, while many new FAQS have been added to the system. The purpose of the FAQs is to provide detailed answers to common questions regarding the PQRI program. Among the various FAQs included in this update are several related to the 2007 PQRI data re-run. The FAQs may be found in the “Related Links Inside CMS” section of the PQRI webpage at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pqri/ on the CMS website.


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that two new educational resources have been posted to the PQRI webpage on the CMS website.

The following items are now available for download on the PQRI Educational Resources web page:

2009 PQRI Fact Sheet: What's New for the 2009 PQRI - This Fact Sheet provides an overview of the 2009 PQRI and highlights the changes from the 2008 PQRI program.

2009 PQRI Made Simple – Reporting the Preventive Care Measures Group - This Tip Sheet provides quick, easy to understand instructions on how to satisfactorily participate in the 2009 PQRI for those who wish to report quality data using claims for the Preventive Care Measures Group.

To access these new, and all, available educational resources, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI on the CMS website and click on the Educational Resources tab. Once on the Educational Resources page, scroll down to the “Downloads” section and click on the “2009 PQRI Fact Sheet: What’s New for the 2009 PQRI” and the “2009 PQRI Made Simple- Reporting the Preventive Care Measures Group” links.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is now accepting quality measure suggestions for consideration for possible inclusion in the proposed set of quality measures for use in the 2010 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). CMS is accepting suggestions for individual measures and measure groups (e.g., suggestions for new measures groups and/or suggestions for the composition of existing measures groups(s)). For instructions on submitting suggestions, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pqri on the CMS website and click on the “Measures/Codes” link on the left. All suggestions must be received by 5:00pm EST February 27, 2009.

Note: Suggesting individual measures or measures for a new or existing measures group does not guarantee that the measure(s) will be included in the proposed or final sets of measures of any proposed or final rule that address the 2010 PQRI. CMS will determine what individual measures and measures group(s) to include in the proposed set of quality measures, and after a period of public comment, the agency will make the final determination with regard to the final set of quality measures for the 2010 PQRI.