Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) began in 2007 as an initiative for Medicare Part B. Practices had the opportunity to earn an incentive bonus through 2014. However, starting in 2015 all physicians must successfully report via one of the six reporting options to avoid a 2% penalty in 2017 (with no offer of a bonus).

• Reporting Option: IRIS™ (Intelligent Research in Sight) Registry EHR System Integration: Academy members with EHR can have the Academy's IRIS Registry integrate with their EHR system to extract data needed to report nine clinical quality measures across three quality domains.
• Reporting Option: Cataracts Measures Group: Cataract surgeons can report the Cataracts Measures Group through the IRIS Registry.

For practices that choose one of the reporting above, note the associated responsibilities of both the IRIS Registry and the practice:

Cataracts Measures Group

The practice is responsible for:

• Entering all patient data for the measures (except the patient survey measure data), and
• Providing patients with the pre-operative visual function survey prior to the date of the operation to complete, and
• Providing patients with the postoperative visual function survey and the postoperative satisfaction survey to complete. These surveys must be returned within 90-days following the surgery.

IRIS Registry will:

• Provide a manual entry web portal that the practice can use to enter the data, and
• Provide business reply envelopes for patients to return their surveys to the Academy (or the practice can collect and return to the Academy), and
• Collate the patient survey responses and record the responses for the two patient survey measures, and 
• Submit the practice’s measures group input on behalf of the practice to CMS. 

Nine individual measures

The practice is responsible for:

• Identifying the 9 individual measures, and 
• Entering all of the patient data for the measures.

IRIS Registry will:

• Provide a manual entry web portal that the practice can use to enter the data, and 
• Submit the practice’s measures input on behalf of the practice to CMS.

Visit the Academy's PQRS page for additional details on all 6 reporting options.