CMS/Medicare: An Update on the 2007 PQRI Reporting Period

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) today announced payment of more than $36 million in bonus payments to many of the more than 56,700 health professionals who satisfactorily reported quality information to Medicare under the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).

“Creating a value-based purchasing system is a critical way to improve our health care systems. By collecting quality data, health care providers can use the information to improve the quality care of beneficiaries,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

Physicians, physician group practices, and other PQRI eligible professionals should receive their payments by August 2008. The average incentive amount for individual professionals is over $600 and average incentive payment for a physician group practice is over $4,700, with the largest payment to a physician group practice totaling over $205,700.

The PQRI is part of the President’s Value-driven Health Care Agenda that seeks to address current problems in the health care sector regarding preventable errors, uneven quality of care and rising health care costs.
More information about the PQRI program, including how eligible professionals can participate and the criteria to qualify for an incentive payment is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI.

To read the entire CMS Press release issued today, click here: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=3198&