About $234 million in bonuses under the Physician Quality Reporting System and $148 million in incentives for ePrescribing were paid out in 2009, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Participation in the now-voluntary PQRS has grown 50% per year since the program started in 2007 and currently includes one in five eligible health care professionals. In 2009, some 210,000 physicians and other eligible health care professionals participated, but just 119,804 clinicians reported data in a manner consistent with the necessary criteria for incentive payouts, the CMS said.
Emergency physicians had the highest rate of satisfactory reporting, the CMS said. In 2009, 31,000 reported on at least one quality measure and 79% received an incentive payment.
“Although participation in our pay-for-reporting programs is optional now, it should be regarded as imperative in terms of medical professionals' shared goal of improving quality of care and patient safety,” CMS Administrator Donald Berwick said in a statement.
The average payment per professional was $1,956 and the average payment per practice was $18,525, according to the CMS. Payments, which were sent in the fall of 2010, were equal to 2% of total estimated charges under Medicare Part B.
Physicians and health professionals could report on 194 measures. The three most frequently reported quality measures were performing electrocardiograms in the emergency department to diagnose chest pain; using electronic health records to organize and manage care; and, working with diabetics to control blood glucose levels.
Some notable improvements since the program's inception included a near doubling of the number of physicians reporting that they had talked with diabetic patients about eye-related complications – from 52% in 2007 to 93% in 2009. Also, beta-blockers were recommended to patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction by 95% of reporting physicians in 2009, as compared to 64% in 2007.
The PQRS program will remain voluntary until 2015, when the Medicare program will start withholding payments for lack of participation.
The first year of the e-Prescribing program was 2009. That year, 48,354 physicians received an e-Prescribing incentive payment, with an average payment of $3,000 per individual and $14,501 per practice.
The deadline for participation in the e-Prescribing program is much sooner than that for the PQRS program. Physicians will see pay reductions beginning in 2012 if they don't participate in ePrescribing.