National CME pilot getting good reviews

Some 6,000 physicians have signed on to a quality improvement project.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Dec. 15, 2003.

It's really quite easy. That's the verdict of two primary care physicians taking part in "Project in a Box," a quality improvement pilot that also offers continuing medical education credit, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced in April.

Family physician Eric Paulson, MD, in Carroll, Iowa, says incorporating "Project in a Box" into his solo practice has been fairly painless.

The project was initiated in Iowa two years ago before being rolled out by the CMS through state Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations everywhere except Alabama and the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The program is optional for physicians, but with the added incentive of CME credit, the aim is to increase the number of office-based physicians participating in quality improvement efforts.

Mike Speight, director of partnership development for the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care, Iowa's Medicare QIO, said the evaluations coming across his desk show doctors are giving the pilot top scores for ease of use and impact on patient care. This is anecdotal evidence at this point, but more formal results will be calculated when the American Medical Association performs an independent evaluation early in 2004.

Dr. Paulson's been keeping tabs on all three tracks -- diabetes management; influenza and pneumococcal immunization; and breast cancer screening -- for two years.

"To be perfectly honest, most of the work is done by my nurse, and she assures me it's not an undue amount of busy work," he said.