Participation in GIQuIC can be used for PQRS

WASHINGTON ─ Participation in GI Quality Improvement Consortium, Ltd. is an option for physicians who must participate in Physician Quality Reporting System, according to a presenter here at DDW 2015.

GI Quality Improvement Consortium, Ltd., or GIQuIC, is an electronic, web-based registry. GIQuIC was conceptualized to be used for benchmarking but early on it was evident that there were quality improvement opportunities, Irving M. Pike, MD, FACG, FASGE, of John Muir Health and president of GIQuIC, said.

Irving M. Pike

As of today, there are almost 1.6 million colonoscopies and 100,000 esphagogastroduodenoscopies (EGDs) currently in the registry. More than 375 organizations (some with multiple sites) and 3,100 endoscopists submit data into the registry, he said. “We now have 20% to 25% of practicing gastroenterologists [who are] performing procedures in the country and entering their data into the database. So it is a very representable sample.”

The GIQuIC colonoscopy measures are taken directly from the quality documents by the ASGE and ACG, he said.

Pike described a process whereby CMS allows for the PQRS requirement an electronic database that measures quality that is sponsored by a specialty organization. Physicians who submit their data into a certified registry can, at his or her request, send the data to CMS and thus are qualified for PQRS, even though those measures are not the same measures that were developed by traditional CMS measure development, he said.

“Which means that now as a gastroenterologist you can get credit for adenoma detection rate, adequacy of bowel prep and photo documentation of the cecum rather than measuring smoking cessation, BMI, following hypertension, etc. So the work that is relevant to what you do each day can now be measured,” Pike said. There are 13 measures in GIQuIC and one must report on nine of them to qualify for PQRS, Pike said.

“If you are not participating in PQRS … today in 2015, in 2017 you will have a 2% fee schedule cut from CMS,” Pike said. “I really don’t want people to start getting their compensation in 2017 and saying, ‘Hey, what happened.’” – by Joan-Marie Stiglich, ELS

For more information: Pike IM. Sp353. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 15-19, 2015; Washington, D.C.

Disclosure: Pike reports no financial support.