Physician Quality Reporting System

• Participation in MOC Recognized by CMS
• PQRS MOC: Advantages to Participating in 2013
• How to Earn the Additional Bonus
• MOC Matters: A Tool to Help Diplomates Meet CMS Quality Reporting Requirements

Participation in MOC Recognized by CMS

ABIM is collaborating with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide ABIM board certified physicians with an opportunity to earn a monetary benefit for participating in Maintenance of Certification (MOC) during the 2013 calendar year.

ABIM's MOC program will be included in CMS's Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) MOC Program Incentive. This means ABIM board certified physicians who successfully participate in CMS's PQRS program can also earn an additional incentive payment by participating in ABIM's MOC program in 2013.

PQRS is a federal physician quality reporting program overseen by CMS. PQRS enables eligible physicians to earn incentive payments by reporting their performance on a designated set of quality measures. Physicians can earn an additional incentive payment by participating in the PQRS MOC Program Incentive program.

PQRS MOC: Advantages to Participating in 2013

• If you successfully participate in PQRS reporting, you can receive an incentive payment equal to 0.5% of your estimated total allowed charges for covered Medicare Part B services.
• If you successfully participate in PQRS reporting and successfully participate in the PQRS MOC Program Incentive program, you can receive the PQRS incentive payment and an additional incentive payment of 0.5% for PQRS MOC.

How to Earn the Additional Bonus

In order to qualify for the additional PQRS MOC Program Incentive bonus, you must fulfill the following requirements (in any order) any time between January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013.

Note: The first requirement is done through CMS; the rest is completed through ABIM.

1. Successfully complete regular PQRS quality reporting for 2013. Report data on quality measures for a 12-month reporting period (January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013), either as an individual or as part of a group, to CMS. Submit via any CMS-approved reporting option:
• Medicare Part B claims reporting
• CMS-qualified electronic health record
• CMS-qualified registry

Important Notes:

• The administrative claims-based reporting option will satisfy your PQRS reporting requirements but does not meet the criteria to earn the PQRS incentive or the PQRS MOC incentive.
• ABIM does not manage the regular PQRS reporting. Please direct any questions about the quality reporting program to CMS. For more information on how to participate, please visit the CMS website, call 1-866-288-8912 or e-mail the CMS help desk.
2. Be enrolled in ABIM's MOC program during calendar year 2013 (January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013). In order to be eligible for this additional 0.5% incentive payment, you must maintain a current certificate throughout calendar year 2013 (January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013).
3. Complete an ABIM PIM Practice Improvement Module^®, an option from the Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) Pathway or an activity in the Multi-Specialty MOC Portfolio Program any time between January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013.

Note: All PIMs qualify except:

• Essentials of Quality Improvement module
• Completed Project PIM
• Clinical Supervision PIM
4. Complete a patient experience of care survey.

Note: The following ABIM PIMs include a patient survey; therefore, if you have completed or choose to complete one of these PIMs, you will satisfy both requirements 3 and 4:

• Asthma PIM
• Communications – Primary Care PIM
• Communication – Recent Visit PIM
• Communications – Subspecialist PIM
• Cancer Screening PIM
• Care of Vulnerable Elderly PIM
• Diabetes PIM
• Hypertension PIM
• Preventive Cardiology PIM

If you select a PIM, an AQI activity or an MOC Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program activity that does not include a patient survey, you can fulfill the patient survey requirement by completing one of the following:

• Communications – Primary Care PIM
• Communication – Recent Visit PIM
• Communications – Subspecialist PIM
• ABMS Patient Survey Module
5. Complete an ABIM Medical Knowledge module (regardless of whether or not you have already fulfilled the medical knowledge requirement for your MOC cycle) any time between January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013.
6. Complete attestation (website to complete attestation will open in Spring 2013), see below for more information on MOC Matters. ABIM will work with ABMS to verify your attestation and it will then be sent to CMS to qualify you for the PQRS MOC Program Incentive bonus.

MOC Matters: A Tool to Help Diplomates Meet CMS Quality Reporting Requirements

ABIM has partnered with American Board of Medical Specialties to create MOC Matters, a portal to assist you with meeting the PQRS and PQRS MOC Program Incentive program requirements.

MOC Matters gives you access to:

• Attestation Page – Use the attestation to confirm the MOC activity you have completed in 2013. Your information will be verified by ABIM and sent to CMS. You must submit an attestation through the MOC Matters portal in order to earn the PQRS MOC Program Incentive bonus.
• PQRS Registry – An optional tool for reporting clinical measure data to CMS.
• ABMS Patient Survey – An optional tool for meeting the patient survey requirement for PQRS MOC. See PQRS MOC Requirements above for other options.

The tools in the MOC Matters portal will open in Spring 2013 to allow you to report on your 2013 activity.

Note: To avoid being locked out of the MOC Matters portal, do not submit your attestation until you have finished submitting your clinical data to CMS via the PQRS registry or have gathered enough patient surveys using ABMS Patient Survey tool.