Half million providers to get 2% cut in Medicare payments

Editor's Note

More than 500,000 physicians and other providers will get a 2% cut in their Medicare payments because of poor performance in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the June 13 Modern Healthcare reports. The penalties are based on 2015 claims data.

Though Medicare is phasing out PQRS and replacing it with the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System, providers will continue to be penalized until 2018.

More than 500,000 physicians and other providers face a 2% cut in their Medicare payments this year due to poor performance under the Physician Quality Reporting System. Under PQRS, which is being phased out, clinicians choose from a list of quality measures under which they want to be evaluated under, such as how well they performed care management or if they helped patients keep their diabetes in check.