Survey: Practices Frustrated with PQRI

A survey of 429 members of the Medical Group Management Association finds widespread dissatisfaction with Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.


A survey of 429 members of the Medical Group Management Association finds widespread dissatisfaction with Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.

The PQRI feedback report gives guidance on how a practice can improve patient care outcomes. The reports are based on a practice's own data that is submitted to Medicare.

Sixty-seven percent of all surveyed members getting the feedback reports were not satisfied with the guidance.

In addition, only forty-eight percent of responding practices were able to access their 2008 report. Another 36.5 percent of respondents could not download the feedback report and 3.5 percent didn't know the report was available. On average, it took practice staff and physicians nearly nine hours to download the reports, compared with about five hours for the 2007 report.

Members of Englewood, Colo.-based MGMA also continue to express frustration with an unreasonable lag time between reporting PQRI and getting results, says William Jessee, M.D., president and CEO. "With the PQRI now in the fourth reporting year and Congress contemplating modifications to the program in health care reform legislation, MGMA strongly urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Congress to take note of our members' feedback and implement much needed improvements," he adds.

For survey results, click here.

--Joseph Goedert

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