Pulse's PQRS Registry Further Enables Physician Practices to Increase Revenues While Improving Patient Care

WICHITA, Kan., June 28, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Systems, Inc., an industry-leading provider of Electronic Health Records (EHR), Practice Management and Revenue Cycle Management solutions, announced today that its Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Registry enables eligible healthcare providers to receive incentive payments from the federal government while improving the quality of care offered to patients. Pulse's PQRS Registry is an easy-to-use solution for seamlessly reporting quality data through the Pulse Complete EHR or PulsePro Practice Management solutions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has instituted several programs to measure the quality of care, including PQRS. Although PQRS is currently a voluntary reporting system, it is mandatory in 2015. During the voluntary phase-in period, eligible professionals using a PQRS Registry can earn incentive payments from CMS. Pulse's PQRS Registry is CMS qualified, so eligible professionals have peace of mind knowing their reporting data meets CMS requirements for financial incentives.

Eligible professionals who use Pulse's PQRS Registry can improve the care of the patients they serve through evidence-based actions, and also increase their practice's total incentive payments allowed by the Medicare Part B reimbursement for covered professional services. Pulse makes it easy for its clients to report to CMS as Pulse's PQRS Registry is launched directly from the Pulse Pro Practice Management application and Pulse's Complete EHR to submit the data.

"CMS' PQRS Registry Program is important for several reasons, chief among them is improving the quality of measurable data being submitted to Medicare as the data collected this year will impact the future of reimbursement in 2015 and for years to come," said Jeff Burton, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. "Participation this year will help ensure data collection today to improve healthcare tomorrow, the fact that CMS is reimbursing Physicians for reporting this claims data is a great added incentive to help drive compliance and participation."

PQRS is a voluntary individual reporting program that provides an incentive payment to eligible professionals who satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered Physician Fee Schedule services furnished to Medicare Part B beneficiaries utilizing quality-data codes, a qualified registry or a qualified electronic health record. In 2015, a payment adjustment/penalty will be enforced upon eligible professionals who elect to not participate and do not satisfactorily report data in 2013 on quality measures for covered professional services.