WASHINGTON—On December 18, the College of American Pathologists’ (CAP’s) Pathologists Quality Registry once again received its qualified clinical data registry status from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This recognizes our registry’s ability to improve care for patients and collect quality data to submit for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). The Pathologists Quality Registry reduces pathologists’ burdens when participating in MIPS by providing practice-specific guidance, consolidating reporting for both the Quality and the Improvement Activities categories and providing pathology practices with real-time performance benchmark reports.
“Quality diagnostic patient care is at the foundation of the CAP’s mission,” said CAP President Patrick Godbey, MD, FCAP. “Our Pathologists Quality Registry guarantees that pathologists have the best qualified clinical data registry for continuous quality improvement. It helps us improve our practices and successfully fulfill the requirements of Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Our registry enhances the pathologist’s ability to get paid fairly for the value he or she provides to Medicare patients.”
To support pathologists, the Pathologists Quality Registry offers pathology-specific quality measures and the ability to integrate with a practices’ laboratory information system or billing system for automated and simplified data collection for practices that prefer not to use the web data entry tool. The registry will offer a choice of 15 quality reporting measures, most of which are exclusively available in the Pathologists Quality Registry. Moreover, the CAP’s expert staff can guide participants through the measure selection and reporting process.
The CMS is offering, again for 2021, its “Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances” policy for eligible clinicians unable to meet requirements for the MIPS program in 2021, but they also said many physicians will opt to report MIPS data. Despite the potential exemption, almost 1,000 pathologists are using the CAP’s registry. Since its inception, 100% of the CAP’s registry participants submitting MIPS data have been eligible for positive adjustments. Pathology practices enrolled in the Pathologists Quality Registry, have also used the data to improve contracting positions with health insurance payers and hospitals.
About the College of American Pathologists
As the world’s largest organization of board-certified pathologists and leading provider of laboratory accreditation and proficiency testing programs, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide. As a 501(c)(6) membership organization, the CAP is the only entity representing pathologists with unrestricted advocacy capability and a political action committee, PathPAC. For more information, visit yourpathologist.org to watch pathologists at work and see the stories of the patients who trust them with their care. Read the CAP Annual Report.