Medical group practice management for all specialties in medicine have taken on a whole new meaning with the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the Affordable Care Act. A new program is mandated as part of the law and it has to do with physicians having to adhere to certain metrics in order to qualify for a bonus when treating Medicare Part B patients. HSMN can help you get there.
What is the essence of this program and what is the impact on a medical practice? Dan Henninger of the Wall St. Journal hascharacterized the recent Supreme Court ruling with an insightful comment in his column on July 5, 2012, “have you noticed what got lost in this historic rumble? Doctors. Remember them.”
By CMS’s definition of PQRS, the program provides an incentive payment to practices with eligible professionals who satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered physicians fee schedule (PFS) services furnished to Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service (FFS) patients. Recent articles have raised the question, “do metrics dampen motivation?” The concern surrounds what happens to the physician’s use of their medical decision training and judgment in the physician-patient relationships? Will they rely on the “pay for performance” metrics to receive their bonus payments or will they focus on their own judgment about what is good for the patient? HSMN has extensive experience working closely with CMS to answer these questions.