Physician practices spend $15.4 billion annually on quality reporting

The number of quality measures directed at physicians by Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers has increased rapidly in the past decade.
Dealing with these measures imposes a considerable burden on physician practices (eg, understanding the measures, providing performance data, and understanding performance reports from payers), but the extent of that burden has not been quantified.

In this study from Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, and the Medical Group Management Association, Denver, researchers present results from a national survey on the cost to physician practices of dealing with quality measures. Some 390 practices responded to the survey.

Survey findings show that physician practices each year spend 785 hours per physician to track and report quality measures for Medicare and private health insurers at a cost of  more than $15.4 billion per year.

The most time, 12.5 hours per week, was spent entering information into medical records for quality reporting.

Eight in 10 physicians surveyed reported spending more effort on quality measures now than 3 years ago, and nearly half reported significant burden because of multiple similar measures. Only 27% thought the current measures were representative of care quality.

Though much is gained from quality measurement, the current system is unnecessarily costly, the authors say. Greater effort is needed to standardize measures and make them easier to report.

−Casalino L P, Gans D, Weber R, et al. US physician practices spend more than $15.4 billion annually to report quality measures. Health Affairs. 2016;35(5):401-406.

http://www.physiciansfoundation.org/uploads/default/US_Physician_Practices_Spend_More_Than_15.4_Billion_Annually_To_Report_Quality_Measures.pdf