(CMS: Baltimore, Maryland) -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced payment of more than $36 million in bonus payments to many of the more than 56,700 health professionals who satisfactorily reported quality information to Medicare under the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).

“Creating a value-based purchasing system is a critical way to improve our health care systems. By collecting quality data, health care providers can use the information to improve the quality care of beneficiaries,” says health and human services secretary Michael Leavitt.

Physicians, physician group practices, and other PQRI eligible professionals should receive their payments by August 2008. The average incentive amount for individual professionals is more than $600 and average incentive payment for a physician group practice is more than $4,700, with the largest payment to a physician group practice totaling more than $205,700.

“These payments to physicians for participating in the PQRI are a first step toward improving how Medicare pays for health care services,” says CMS acting administrator Kerry Weems. “We all can agree that the current payment system needs to be reformed to pay for high quality care rather than continuing to pay for the volume of services. The PQRI has proven to be a successful step towards establishing a value-based purchasing program for physicians.”

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