Without intervention and change in coding practices, neurosurgeons in the US face a $10,000,000 cut in Medicare reimbursement in 2015. However, these cuts can be avoided by participating in the CMS PQRS program.

These questions and answers provide a cursory review of these relevant quality systems for practicing surgeons. This is not a thorough review of these programs; this is the bare-bones info you need to

avoid cuts in your practice’s Medicare reimbursements. Instructional webinars on each of these programs are under preparation at present and will be provided as a part of our coding course offerings in 2013.

1. What do all these acronyms mean?

   PQRS is the Physicians Quality Reporting System, a group of process-based measures that are used by CMS as quality assessments. Compliance with these process measures are equated with providing quality care.