CMS plans to integrate quality reporting programs under Medicare and HITECH Act
As required in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that it plans to integrate the quality reporting requirements for physicians' Medicare payments with reporting requirements for healthcare providers who achieve meaningful use under the HITECH Act. Via Healthcare IT News:
Under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), physicians who participate in Medicare can receive incentives for reporting various quality measures, a select number of which are aimed at those who want to report using EHRs.
Providers who become meaningful users of EHRs, as laid down by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will also be eligible for incentive payments. A final rule on that is expected soon.
CMS has requested public comment on how it should integrate the two programs, included within a proposed rule about changes in Medicare physician payments for 2011 CMS expects to publish the proposed rule July 13.
"In an effort to align PQRI with the EHR incentive program, we propose to include many ARRA core clinical quality measures in the PQRI program, to demonstrate meaningful use of EHR and quality of care furnished to individuals," the proposed rule says.
Meaningful use measures that physicians could use for PQRI reporting through electronic health records include such things as blood pressure measurement for hypertension, body mass index screening and prevention care follow up, and drugs to be avoided in the elderly, according to CMS.
You can find a copy of the proposed rule here.
"CMS to two align quality reporting programs," Healthcare IT News (June 29, 2010).
