Aside from Meaningful Use, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administer other incentive/penalty programs.
Physician Quality Reporting
The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) uses a combination of incentives and payment adjustments to promote the reporting of quality information by eligible professionals. The program provides incentive payments to practices with eligible professionals who satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered Physician Fee Schedule services furnished to Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service beneficiaries (including Railroad Retirement Board and Medicare Secondary Payer).
For more on this program, visit the PQRS web page.
E-prescribing
The Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program uses a combination of incentive payments and payment adjustments to encourage electronic prescribing by eligible professionals. E-prescribing refers to directly transmitting a prescription from a provider’s EHR to a pharmacy’s computer system. This eliminates the need for a paper prescriptions, except for controlled substances. E-Prescribing is also a Meaningful Use measure.
The program began January 1, 2009. For instructions about how to avoid Medicare payment adjustments, visit the CMS E-prescribing page.
Updated 3/28/2013