WCHQ approved as registry for 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative
The Collaborative has again been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as an approved registry for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) program. WCHQ was previously selected as a qualified registry for the 2008 PQRI program. In 2008, we reported quality outcomes for 1,903 physicians – making our PQRI registry the second largest in the country. The Collaborative expects even more physicians will participate in 2009.

The PQRI registry allows healthcare providers to easily report on 14 quality measures using WCHQ’s repository based data submission system. WCHQ simply extracts the necessary data for PQRI submission, requiring no additional effort from member organizations. Members qualify for financial incentives from CMS worth thousands of dollars for physicians, practitioners, and therapists. Eligible healthcare providers who successfully report on a designated set of quality measures may earn a bonus payment of two percent of their total allowed charges for covered services payable under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for the 2009 reporting period.

“We believe WCHQ’s designation as an approved PQRI registry provides considerable value to our members on a number of levels,” stated Mary Gordon, RHIT, and WCHQ’s Clinical Information Coordinator. “Our members who participate receive the bonus payments from CMS. Additionally, this designation gives our member organizations a voice at the national level in the discussion about quality improvement measurement. It is important for us to be a part of that process,” added Gordon.

These thoughts were echoed by Jan Botts, Director of Quality of Care & Process Management at the Mercy Health System, a Collaborative member. “Participation in the PQRI registry has helped us enhance our internal processes for data reporting – a key element in meeting pay for performance reporting standards. In addition, our participation has helped increase our physician engagement in the data reporting process. Evidence-based medicine is where we need to be for the good of our patients and this effort furthers that goal,” said Botts

Both WCHQ and CMS provide reports containing the health care provider data back to participating members. At the present time the data is not reported publicly.

The WCHQ PQRI registry is offered exclusively to WCHQ member organizations and its affiliated partner, Minnesota Community Measurement. WCHQ partnered with Minnesota Community Measurement in 2008 to submit data for Minnesota-based healthcare providers. The two organizations are continuing their collaboration for the 2009 PQRI program as well as in additional areas of performance measurement and improvement.

Your organization still has time to sign up to participate in the PQRI 2009 reporting period.  For more information, please contact Mary Gordon at 608-775-4519 or at mgordon@wchq.org.
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