Study: Physician practices spend $15.4 billion annually to report quality measures

Physician practices each week spend more than 15 hours per physician to track and report quality measures for Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurers at an estimated cost of at least $15.4 billion a year, according to a survey reported today in Health Affairs. The most time – 12.5 hours per week – was spent entering information into medical records solely for quality reporting, the 2014-2015 survey found. Eight in 10 primary care, cardiology, orthopedic and multi-specialty practices reported spending more effort on quality measures than three years ago, nearly half reported significant burden due to multiple similar measures, and only 27% thought that current measures were representative of care quality. The authors said the findings suggest the need to prioritize “efforts to reduce the number of measures and standardize their use across external entities.” In comments submitted last week, AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure that quality measures for the upcoming Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and alternative payment models for physicians align with national priorities for the entire health care system.