CMS announced incentive payments of over $92 million to physicians and other eligible professions for reporting quality-related data to Medicare under the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). (Source)
CMS developed a program to give doctors an incentive for raising quality of care and for reporting to CMS. In 2007, physicians reported for a six-month period. Last year, CMS gave them the choice of reporting for six months or a year. The number of professions earning the incentive pay rose by almost 30 percent from 2007 to 2008.
“We are very pleased with the results for 2008,” said Charlene Frizerra, Acting CMS Administrator. “More health professionals have successfully reported data, and the substantial growth in the national total for PQRI incentive payments demonstrates that Medicare can align payment with quality incentives.”
The average incentive payment for individuals was over $1,000; the largest so far was more than $98,000.
