CMS Extends Deadline for 2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Submission

Members & Publications

February 6, 2017

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is extending the submission deadline for 2016 Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) data submission for the EHR reporting mechanism. Individual eligible professionals (EPs), PQRS group practices, qualified clinical data registries (QCDRs), and qualified EHR data submission vendors (DSVs) now have until March 13, 2017 to submit 2016 EHR data via QRDA. The original submission deadline was February 28, 2017.

A complete list of 2016 data submission time frames is below:

March 13, 2017 deadlines:

  • EHR Direct or Data Submission Vendor (QRDA I or III) – 1/3/17 - 3/13/17
  • Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QRDA III) – 1/3/17 - 3/13/17

March 17, 2017 deadline:

  • Web Interface – 1/16/17 - 3/17/17

March 31, 2017 deadlines:

  • Qualified Registries (Registry XML) – 1/3/17 - 3/31/17
  • QCDRs (QCDR XML) – 1/3/17 - 3/31/17

Submission ends at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the end date listed. An Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) account with the “Submitter Role” is required for these PQRS data submission methods. Please see the EIDM System Toolkit for additional information.

EPs who do not satisfactorily report 2016 quality measure data to meet the PQRS requirements will be subject to a downward PQRS payment adjustment on all Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) services rendered in 2018. For questions, please contact the QualityNet Help Desk at 1-866-288-8912 or via email at Qnetsupport@hcqis.org from 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. CT. Complete information about PQRS is available here.

Legislation Introduced to Alleviate Impact of Conversion Factor Cut for 2021

Nov 09, 2020

Last month, two bills were introduced in the House proposing solutions to the estimated 10.6% Physician Fee Schedule conversion factor cut expected to go into effect January 1, 2021.  The bills offer some relief to the cut, but do not reflect a comprehensive or long-term solution.  AAPM&R has therefore chosen to remain neutral regarding these bills. 

Your Academy continues to advocate for a permanent solution to the conversion factor cut while maintaining the important payment increases to office and outpatient evaluation and management services.