Indeed, the American College of Physicians wants to move even more quickly than the AMA on measure development, voluntary reporting, and pay for performance, Robert B. Doherty, the college's senior vice president for governmental affairs and public policy, said in an interview.
From the CMS's perspective, there's no reason why the AMA's agreement should not work in tandem with the physician voluntary reporting program, Peter Ashkenaz, CMS spokesman, said in an interview.
The program isn't about developing measures, it's about testing systems “on how well we can use the existing claims-based system to capture the data from the measures,” he said. The agency is testing the system on a voluntary basis to make sure it can function in a manner that works for both providers and the Medicare program, and ultimately for the beneficiaries when CMS reports the data. “Making sure we have a robust set of measures to populate this program or any follow-up program that Congress may design is the critical part of the AMA's deal with the Congress.”
“We need to show Congress that the profession is committed to quality measurement and reporting,” said Mr. Doherty.