The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has modernized its healthcare provider directory with features that expand information about physicians, and with online tools for seniors and other consumers to help them select healthcare professionals and services in their communities.
The Physician Compare Web site updates the agency's directory, which for over a decade has helped beneficiaries find doctors who participate in Medicare.
The first phase of Physician Compare begins to fill an important gap in CMS online tools for Medicare beneficiaries, said Dr. Donald Berwick, CMS administrator, in an announcement Dec. 30.
"This helps to pave the way for consumers to have similar information about their physicians as they have for nursing homes, home health agencies and health and drug plans," he said, referring to CMS Web sites, such as Hospital Compare, which enables consumers to shop for hospitals against several price and quality factors.
The Physician CompareWeb site, which the health reform law called for, is designed to be easy to use and to help all patients, whether on Medicare or not, locate health professionals in their area. Information includes contact and address information for offices, the professional's medical specialty, where the professional completed his or her degree as well as residency or other clinical training, and whether the professional speaks a foreign language.
Later in 2011, CMS plans a second phase of the Web site which will specify whether professionals participate in a voluntary effort to electronically prescribe medicines rather than through traditional paper-based prescription methods.
In future years, the Physician Compare Web site will offer information about the quality of care Medicare beneficiaries receive from physicians and the other healthcare professionals profiled on the site. That expansion will include information on quality of care and patient experience that can help consumers learn more about the care provided by Medicare-participating physicians.
The Affordable Care Act requires CMS to develop a plan for the advanced features by 2013.
In addition to information about the physician's practice, Physician Compare also shows consumers whether the practice reported certain data to CMS through the voluntary Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), formerly known as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.
The PQRS pays incentives to physicians for reporting data on quality measures related to services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries. In 2009, more than 200,000 professionals reported data to CMS through PQRS, the agency said. These quality measures are based on the best available medical evidence and designed to help professionals improve care for patients.
