Health policy basics: physician quality reporting system.

Abstract

The U.S. health care system is in the midst of transforming from a fee-for-service system to a value-based system that delivers high-quality and cost-effective care. Quality reporting programs and increasing transparency of performance are meant to encourage physicians and hospitals to invest in improving the delivery of care. In 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). The PQRS is an incentive and penalty payment program for eligible professionals who report data on quality measures for covered professional services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries. The program gives eligible professionals the opportunity to assess the quality of care they are providing to their patients and compare their performance on a given measure with that of their peers. This article discusses the history of PQRS, the 2014 PQRS, and how it affects other quality programs.