Medicare Physician Quality Reporting Initiative: Implications for Rural Physicians. Final Report

摘要

In December 2006, President Bush signed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA), which authorized the establishment of a physician quality reporting system by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), titled the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). PQRI is a pay-for-reporting program (P4R), whereby physicians and other eligible professionals may receive an incentive payment for reporting on specific quality measures for their patients, though they need not demonstrate improvements in outcomes for those measures. P4R programs like PQRI test a provider's performance data capture and reporting processes, and may inform future pay-for-performance (P4P) initiatives. PQRI was designed with the following characteristics: (1) it is voluntary program; (2) physicians can select up to three measures that apply to them; and (3) the bonus is positive (e.g., currently, there is no other punitive component to the program). PQRI is CMS. first nationwide initiative that provides incentives to encourage reporting of quality data by physicians.