CMS to collect quality data under new program

Last Friday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established the Physician Voluntary Reporting Program (PVRP), a step toward a pay-for-performance reimbursement system.

PVRP's first phase will begin in January with the voluntary reporting of 36 evidence-based measures that CMS selected after consulting with physicians, physician organizations, and other experts. The 36 measures include giving aspirin and a beta blocker to a patient who has a myochardial infarction and screening elderly patients for falls, hearing acuity, and incontinence.

“Reporting clinically valid quality measures is a proven approach to making significant improvements in clinical care,” CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, said in a press release.

Physicians will report the quality data to CMS using a dedicated set of Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System codes that will supplement the claims data currently submitted to CMS with clinical data. Physicians who report this data by the summer of 2006 will receive feedback from CMS about the level of their performance.

For more information on the 36 measures, click here.