The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) is a voluntary reporting program which began in July 2007 as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). A physician or other healthcare professional can choose whether to report quality information to Medicare under the Physician Quality Reporting System.
There are numerous reasons why physicians or other healthcare professionals, who are committed to providing high quality care to their patients, may have chosen not to report quality information under the 2010 Physician Quality Reporting System. Some reasons may include, but are not limited to:
- They may not have provided the specific type of care represented by the quality measures that Medicare selected for 2010.
- They may not have treated many Medicare patients during 2010.
- They may not have been aware of this new voluntary program that began in July 2007, and had not set up their office system to report quality data to Medicare during the 2010 Physician Quality Reporting System reporting period.
- They may have been unclear about how to report the quality information to Medicare.
- The cost of collecting the quality information and reporting it to Medicare may have been a factor for some physicians and other healthcare professionals.
- They may have chosen to engage in other healthcare quality improvement reporting activities.
Disclaimer: Physician Compare includes information about physicians and other health care professionals who participated in the Physician Quality Reporting System. It does not yet contain physician and eligible professional performance information. CMS plans to post performance information on Physician Compare in calendar year 2013, covering services provided to Medicare beneficiaries during 2012.