In response to provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to apply a 1 percent Value- Based Modifier (VBM) penalty to the Medicare payments of physicians in groups of 100 or more that did not engage in group participation in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) in 2013. This VBM penalty would be in addition to another 1.5 percent penalty that would apply to all physicians who did not participate in PQRS either as an individual or as part of a group.

To avoid these penalties, physicians in groups of 100 or more should ensure that their group is registered for one of the PQRS group participation options. The PQRS registration system will close Oct. 15.

Use of the system requires an Individuals Authorized Access to the CMS Computer Services (IACS) number, which can be acquired at https://applications.cms.hhs.gov. Additional information regarding registration and obtaining or modifying an IACS account is available at the Self Nomination/Registration Web page.

Please note that the help desk phone number listed in error messages on the PQRS registration portal is incorrect. Users should call the PV-PQRS Help Desk at 1-888-734-6433 Option 3 for questions about registration. You also can contact CMS’ QualityNet help desk at: 1-866-288-8912 (TTY 1-877-715-6222).