This Week's News
Many doctors could face penalty in 2015 over Medicare quality reporting
Hundreds of thousands of physicians will see their Medicare payments reduced 1.5 percent in 2015 if early participation rates in the Medicare Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) are any indication.
The 2015 penalty will be assessed against physicians who do not fulfill the PQRS requirements next year. CMS reports that 244,145 individual eligible professionals participated in the PQRS in 2010, only a fraction of the more than 1 million physicians and other professionals who were eligible to participate that year.
CMS called this a "notable increase" from 2007 participation, which was about 100,000 professionals. However, more than 50,000 of those who participated in 2010 did not meet the program requirements to qualify for the incentive payments offered to early participants, according to CMS.
"CMS data show that many physicians are not yet participating in the PQRS program," AMA President Peter W. Carmel told American Medical News. "A significant number of those who are trying have been unable to participate, showing that barriers to success still remain."
The AMA has urged CMS to streamline its regulatory programs, which have similar deadlines and could levy multiple penalties against physicians at the same time. Read more in a recent story in AMA Wire.
Visit the CMS website and scroll to "Downloads" to view the report.
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