Health Information Management

News: CMS releases improved Physician Compare tool

CDI Strategies, January 20, 2011

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At the start of the New Year, CMS released an enhanced Physician Compare site which “begins to fill an important gap in our online tools by providing more information about physicians and other healthcare workers," said CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, in a statement.

While the tool is designed to help patients locate health professionals in their communities, it contains information regarding reporting data on quality measures related to Medicare beneficiaries. However, this data is also useful to CDI specialists. CDI staff can use the data to help illustrate to physicians how their medical record documentation eventually makes its way out into the world via Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRI). Although PQRI reporting is voluntary at the moment, the Affordable Care Act requires CMS to expand the Physician Compare site to include information on quality of care and patient experience by 2013.
 
"By using a considered, step-wise approach to spotlighting quality of care, we can create a tool that will help doctors and patients for decades to come," Berwick said.
 
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in HealthLeaders Media. Read Berwick’s release on the CMS website.



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