---
title: "Psych News Alert: Deadline Approaching for Reporting Medicare Quality Measures"
description: Psychiatrists have until December 31 to begin participating in Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) if they want to avoi...
---

[Psych News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org)

# [Psych News Alert: Deadline Approaching for Reporting Medicare Quality Measures](https://alert.psychnews.org/2013/10/deadline-approaching-for-reporting.html)

 Written by [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) | 10/3/13 4:00 AM

| <https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Medicare_117310561-Jun-24-2025-05-38-26-4082-PM.jpg> |  |
| --- | --- |

Psychiatrists have until December 31 to begin participating in Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) if they want to avoid a future penalty on their Medicare reimbursements. The PQRS, established in 2006, is a major component of the government's effort to shift Medicare from a system that pays a standard fee for every CPT-coded service to one that incorporates quality-of-care measures, which is sometimes referred to as pay-for-performance. Clinicians only have to report one quality measure (out of the 259 that have established) for one Medicare patient by the end of this year to avoid a 1.5% penalty on their reimbursements beginning in 2015. The program already pays clinicians who file PQRS measures a .5% reimbursement premium.

Several of the measures are relevant to the care psychiatrists often provide. Among these are five concerned with depression treatment and four related to substance-use screening. Other measures are not specifically psychiatry related but refer to CPT codes that psychiatrists use.

APA has posted detailed information about the [PQRS](http://www.psychiatry.org/practice/managing-a-practice/medicare/physician-quality-reporting-system-pqrs) on its website, including links to sample forms for reporting quality measures to Medicare.

(image: alexmillos/Shutterstock.com)

[View full post](https://alert.psychnews.org/2013/10/deadline-approaching-for-reporting.html)

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