News Briefs: Practice Management Updates

This roundup includes the following brief practice management updates:

CMS recently announced that additional physicians and other eligible professionals might qualify for incentive payments for participating in the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI.

After investigating myriad problems associated with the 2007 PQRI feedback reports and incentive payments, the agency identified technical issues it could correct. According to CMS, after the agency makes those modifications, the 2007 PQRI physician data will be rerun.

The revised 2007 PQRI reports will be available in the fall of 2009 to eligible professionals who have qualified because of what CMS called "the back-end system analysis" and rerunning of data. The rerun does not apply to physicians and other professionals who have already received a PQRI bonus payment.

The system changes also affect 2008 PQRI data, and CMS expects additional professionals will qualify for that reporting year, as well.

The full report (32-page PDF; About PDFs) detailing the PQRI 2007 reporting experience is available on the CMS Web site, as is a frequently-asked-questions document about the PQRI program.

The Academy has voiced its support for creating an entity that would work separately from the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, or RUC, to review and make recommendations to CMS on the value of codes for physician services.

In a letter to RUC Chair Barbara Levy, M.D., the AAFP said it agrees with the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, that RUC relies on physician specialty societies to identify and correct undervalued services, but that the system does little to identify services that may be overvalued.

In the letter, AAFP Board Chair Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., wrote that the new panel should augment the work of the RUC. King expressed concern that CMS accepts about 90 percent of RUC recommendations regarding relative value units, or RVUs, but it has not examined the process by which those suggestions are made for more than 16 years.

King suggested that CMS undertake a study to analyze and determine whether current RUC processes represent an objective and balanced procedure for obtaining input on the establishment, review and adjustment of RVUs. He said a review should focus on the degree by which existing processes

King also asked for greater transparency in RUC voting, noting that RUC members currently cast "secret" votes electronically.