Physician Quality Report Initiative (PQRI) update

CMS Posts Information on the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative is a thorough post on the current status pf PQRI from Michael Apolskis's excellent Medicare Update blog.

For Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, the good news/bad news is that PQRI (use of G-codes to provide information to CMS about quality of care) is limited to Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS). Good news because the negative impact of G-codes (using up the typically-limited number of ICD-9s which accompany a claim for information which does not affect MA risk adjustment scores) doesn't apply. Bad news because MA plans won't get information about quality of care, which is contrary to the one of the basic notions of health maintenance organizations.

If you're involved with Medicare, I recommend you subscribe to Medicare Update.

If you're interested in PQRI, please visit the CMS PQRI Web page.