Medicare launches voluntary quality reporting system

The program will not affect physician reimbursement to start, but the CMS chief hints that Congress could change that.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Nov. 14, 2005.

Washington -- Whether or not Congress acts on physician pay-for-performance before the end of the year, Medicare officials soon will be giving doctors a chance to have a taste of what's to come.

In January 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will implement the Physician Voluntary Reporting Program. Physicians will be able to report how well they fare on 36 quality measures chosen in collaboration between CMS and various physician organizations, including the AMA Physician Consortium for Quality Improvement.

For example, doctors who choose to participate can report to the government on whether they conduct osteoporosis screenings for elderly female patients or whether they administer beta-blockers to patients receiving coronary artery bypass grafts. CMS will set up special new G-codes for physicians to submit such clinical data along with their regular Medicare claims.

The program will be a major step in the move toward greater government support of high-quality health care, said CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, MD, PhD.

"Physicians are in the best position to know what can work best to improve their own practices and ultimately the quality of care available to all patients," he said in a conference call with reporters. "Through these voluntary reports by physicians on evidence-based consensus quality measures, we can take an important step together to help them improve care and ultimately to help make sure that they are adequately compensated for that care."