Mid-year quality reports from CMS provide a glimpse of the real thing

This fall, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release the 2014 Annual Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) for all solo physicians and medical groups who submitted claims to Medicare during calendar year 2014.

These reports examine patient outcomes and cost information, which in turn will be used to calculate the 2016 Value Modifier.

In the meantime, CMS last month released the 2014 mid-year QRUR to physicians and medical groups. It measures performance on care provided between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, meaning it contains only part of the information that will be in the annual report – and count toward the value modifier.

Still, CMS sees the mid-year report as a good resource for physicians and groups to identify areas where they need to improve their quality and efficiency. In fact, CMS has provided a guide on how to use your mid-year QRUR.

If you haven’t looked at your own mid-year report, you can find information to do so on the How to Obtain a QRUR web page.