WellCentive Selected by Medicare for National Quality Improvement Incentive Program
- Filed under: Health News
- Date: Aug 29,2008
Atlanta-based WellCentive (www.wellcentive.com) today announced that it has been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as an approved vendor for payment for the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).
PQRI is a voluntary CMS program that provides a financial incentive to physicians and other eligible health care professionals who successfully report quality outcomes data for their Medicare patients.
Earlier this year, WellCentive was also chosen as one of a select group of registries from across the United States to help CMS test direct reporting of data for the PQRI program. WellCentive was the first registry organization to interface with the CMS system and submit data to CMS for this program.
“We are excited to be chosen as one of the registries approved for payment for the 2008 PQRI program,” said Paul Taylor, M.D., CEO and medical director of WellCentive. “Our selection as both a testing partner for this new registry-based PQRI reporting program, and also as an approved vendor for the 2008 program is a testament to the quality and effectiveness of the WellCentive registry system.”
Participation in the PQRI program enables health care professionals to improve the care of their Medicare patients through evidence-based outcome measures that have been selected for inclusion in the 2008 PQRI program. While the PQRI program is currently a pay-for-reporting program, it is widely believed to be a precursor to a Medicare pay-for-performance program. Pay-for-performance programs sponsored by private health care insurance companies have existed for many years and are growing in popularity and financial importance every year.
As a CMS-approved registry, WellCentive can help health care providers successfully report on a designated set of quality measures to earn a bonus payment of 1.5 percent of Medicare Fee For Service receipts for the selected reporting period. This reimbursement will increase to 2.0 percent for the 2009 PQRI program.
WellCentive’s Web-based registry is more efficient than the only other available reporting option for PQRI payment for 2008, which is a claims-based system. Direct reporting from electronic medical records is not an option for payment in the 2008 PQRI program.
In addition to direct reporting to CMS for the PQRI program, the WellCentive registry system has the capability to directly report data to other payers’ databases for their pay-for-performance programs.
“A physician’s ability to maintain a single patient registry system that is interfaced with multiple external payer databases truly sets the WellCentive system apart in the market,” said Taylor. “This can quickly be translated into a significant return on a relatively small, but important, investment as well as improved patient care.”
Source: WellCentive
Leave a comment