Use 30-day window to review what Physician Compare says about you

If you see Medicare patients, you may know how the online tools at Physician Compare help Medicare beneficiaries find your practice and compare it with other physicians in your area. Beyond certain demographic information about you and your practice, Physician Compare may also provide users with information on your participation in quality activities, performance scores, and patient survey scores. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updates this information annually.

Beginning, Oct. 18, CMS is giving physicians 30 days to preview the information about them on Physician Compare before publicly releasing it online. Data available for preview includes:

• 2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) measures
• 2016 Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems for PQRS measures
• 2016 non-PQRS Qualified Clinical Data Registries measures
• 2015 clinician utilization data

You can access the secured preview site through the Provider Quality Information Portal (PQIP). You will need an active Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) system account to preview your data. The 30-day preview period ends on Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. (Eastern).

For additional assistance with accessing PQIP, or obtaining your EIDM user role, you can contact the QualityNet Help Desk at 866-288-8912 or qnetsupport@hcqis.org. If you have any questions about public reporting or the preview period, please contact CMS at PhysicianCompare@Westat.com.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians