Registry-based Reporting Mechanism

50.2 – Registry-based Reporting Mechanism (Rev. 10, Issued: 07-27-12, Effective: 10-29-12, Implementation: 10-29-12) Beginning in 2008, Individual eligible professionals may choose to participate in the Physician Quality Reporting System via the registry-based reporting mechanism. Eligible professionals who choose to participate in the Physician Quality Reporting System via the registry-based reporting mechanism do not have to enroll or register to begin registry-based reporting of Physician Quality Reporting System quality measures data to CMS. However, to report Physician Quality Reporting System quality measures data via the registry-based reporting mechanism, an eligible professional must select a registry qualified under the Physician Quality Reporting System for the program year and enter into and maintain an appropriate legal arrangement with the selected registry. Such arrangements should provide for the registry’s receipt of patient-specific data from the eligible professional and the registry’s disclosure of quality measures results and numerator and denominator data on Physician Quality Reporting System quality measures or measures groups on behalf of the eligible professional to CMS. An eligible professional choosing the registry-based reporting mechanism must submit information on Physician Quality Reporting System individual quality measures or measures groups to his or her selected registry in the form and manner and by the deadline specified by the registry. Thus the registry would act as a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (Pub. L.104-191) (HIPAA) Business Associate and agent of the eligible professional. Such agents are referred to as “data submission vendors.” The “data submission vendors” would have the requisite legal authority to provide clinical quality measures results and numerator and denominator data on individual quality measures or measures groups on behalf of the eligible professional for the Physician Quality Reporting System. CMS qualifies registries to participate in each program year through a self-nomination process. Registries that were qualified to submit data on behalf of eligible professionals in a prior program year are not required to go through the qualification process again unless they were unsuccessful at submitting Physician Quality Reporting System data for the prior program year by the registry’s data submission deadline or CMS makes changes to the registry qualification requirements. The final list of qualified registries for a particular program year is made available on the CMS Physician Quality Reporting System website at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRS. The list is usually made available in the summer of the program year in question. For example, the list of qualified registries for the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting System was made available in the summer of 2008.