Physician practices are spending nearly 33 days per year, at a cost of $15.4 billion annually, reporting quality measures, a new survey suggests.
The survey, which was published in the March issue of Health Affairs, analyzed the number of hours physician practices spend per week on reporting quality measures for Medicare, Medicaid and other entities (2016;35:401-406). Reporting includes developing and implementing data collection processes, entering relevant quality reporting information into patient medical records, and collecting and transmitting data.
Lawrence P. Casalino, MD, PhD, MPH, from the Department of Health Care Policy at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City, and his colleagues analyzed roughly 1,000 cardiology, orthopedic, primary care and multispecialty medical practices in the United States, and calculated the number of hours those physicians spent reporting quality measures. They found that physicians and staff report spending about 15.1 hours per week and 785.2 hours per year—or 32.7 days—on quality measures, with an average cost of $40,069 per physician per year.
Public and private insurers are trying to shift toward value-based care because it ties physician reimbursements to the quality of care provided. The survey found that 81% of physicians believe that the effort they put into reporting quality measures is much more than three years ago. Only 27% said the quality measures strongly represent their quality of care.
“There is much to gain from quality measurement, but the current system is far from being efficient and contributes to negative physician attitudes toward quality measures,” according to the researchers.
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