Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

CMS announces voluntary system for reporting quality data

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, October 4, 2005

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is establishing a system for physicians to voluntarily report data on the quality of care they provide, according to a CMS announcement last week.

The creation of the system was announced last week by CMS Administrator Mark McClellan at a House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing.

The data gathered by the system will most likely help reform the physician reimbursement system over the next several years by tying higher reimbursement to performance on certain quality measures.

McClellan told the committee that his staff "have made considerable progress creating consensus around a set of primary quality measures" and that continued "physician reporting of these measures will help foster their acceptance in the medical community and help prepare physicians for their eventual adoption."

CMS is in the midst of setting up the infrastructure for the system, McClellan said, and it is intended for use in 2006.

Most Popular