In 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) added a new PQRI measure titled Preventive Care and Screening: Unhealthy Alcohol Use – Screening. It was developed by the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement. The criterion for the measure requires providers to assess a patient’s use of alcohol using a systematic method of screening on an annual basis. 

On June 11, 2010, CMS issued a transmittal containing the first two chapters of a new Manual.  The Manual is Pub. 100-22 and is titled "Medicare Quality Reporting Incentive Programs".  The Manual addresses the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and E-Prescribing (eRx) Medicare Quality Reporting Incentive Programs.  The Manual does not establish new requirements for the PQRI and eRx programs.  It simply manualizes existing requirements to the programs. 

Are you participating in this important program?  We've updated Code Explorer in Coding & Revenue Resource Center and Audit & Revenue Resource Center to make flagging PQRI codes a breeze.   The 2010 Specifications Manual contains details for each specific measure - simply click the GUIDANCE link from Code Explorer to see which measures any particular code falls into and tunnel in for details.  Access the 2010 PQRI&nbsp

A recent CMS Manual Transmittal provides a high-level overview of claims-based reporting for the 2009 physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI) and the E-Prescribing Incentive Program.

CMS has issued the 2009 PQRI Specifications Manual for Claims and Registry (v 3.0).  This identifies the 153 measures for 2009. The complete manual is available for download in the CMS PQRI collection which can be found in the CMS - Coding Guidance library.