CMS updates Physician Compare website with quality information
CMS announced December 14 that it added quality information to its Physician Compare website.
The website is designed to help providers and caregivers make educated decisions about Medicare patient care. CMS first added quality information to the website in 2014 and has since adopted a phased-in approach to adding additional information to the site.
Beginning this month, CMS will feature certain 2016 performance information on the Physician Compare website, including information selected as appropriate for public reporting through the 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule.
The Physician Compare pages may report the following measures:
- A subset of 2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) measures reported as star ratings
- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) for PQRS summary survey measures for groups and individual clinicians reported in top-box scores that show a percentage of responses in the most positive response categories to ensure correct interpretation of patient experience data
- Non-PQRS Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) measures for groups and individual clinicians reported as percentages
Measures now available on the Physician Compare website for the 2016 PQRS are grouped as follows:
- Behavioral health
- Care planning
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Patient safety
- Preventive care: Cancer screening
- Preventive care: General health
- Respiratory diseases
The Physician Compare website now also features 2016 data for the Shared Savings Program, Pioneer, and Next Generation Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), all of which are reported as percentage performance rates. CAHPS for ACO measures are reported as means so that the average of all responses is displayed for each summary measure.
Both the Physician Compare public-facing profile pages and the Physician Compare Downloadable Database feature data for public reporting. However, the information is presented differently between these two websites because the primary audience differs for each. The Physician Compare profile pages are typically accessed by patients and caregivers, whereas the database is frequented by clinicians, group representatives, and third-party data users.
The Long-Term Care Hospital Compare and Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Compare websites also announced the addition of measures just days prior to the Physician Compare announcement.