Medicare releases physician P4P measures

CMS has released the 74 performance measures it plans to begin using in its Medicare pay-for-performance program this July. Under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, physicians who choose to report on quality measures can get bonuses of up to 1.5 percent of their earnings. The bonuses will apply to services provided between July 1st and December 31st of this year. The measures are drawn from discussions with varied physician trade groups and professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and National Quality Forum. Medicare is moving ahead with the program after testing the P4P concept with hospitals for three years. By the second year of its pilot, Medicare found that participating hospitals had improved quality 11.8 percent. In response, the agency paid out $8.7 million to the 115 best-performing hospitals.

To find out more about the measures:
- read this United Press International item

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