HHS chief: Get ready for quality reporting

Michael Leavitt also said that a long-term solution to Medicare's physician payment problem must be found.

By Geri Aston, AMNews staff. Oct. 2, 2006.

Physician quality reporting is still relatively new, but it soon will become standard, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. Doctors must be an integral part of the movement, he said. Any long-term solution to the Medicare physician payment problem will include quality reporting, he added.

Leavitt spoke with AMNews after a private meeting on Sept. 11 with the AMA Board of Trustees.

Question: You said that quality reporting is coming but the country isn't ready for it yet on a national scale. How do you see the process unfolding?

Answer: We have to start in a simple and achievable way. We have a small pile of wheels and a little chassis and a motor, and we're going to put them all together and demonstrate that we can drive this value car and make it work. We can make this work with a limited number of procedures in pilot, then we'll expand it. Over time I believe it will become standard for the industry. It needs to happen with as much speed as possible but with an eye clearly on doing it well.

Q: What is doctors' role?

A: Physicians need to define the quality measures. This is going to be happening on a local basis more than it is on a national basis. So they need to become involved in their local quality initiatives, and if one doesn't exist, they need to create one.

Q: Are the quality measures the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement is developing going to be the ones used?