by Lynn Cook
ASHA has convened a committee called the Audiology Quality Consortium (AQC) that consists of members of 10 audiology organizations (including Military Audiology Association) to provide input for the PQRI. The PQRI is a voluntary program through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) designed to improve the quality of Care to Medicare beneficiaries. Providers who see medicare enrollees can participate in PQRI by reporting on approved quality measures. Those who report are eligible for a 2% incentive payment.
Of course, this does not directly apply to us in military audiology settings, as we do not bill medicare or medicaid for services in our military hospitals. However, ASHA’s interest was in gathering a group of audiologists from a variety of diverse employment settings to discuss these measures and to make recommendations for future indicators to report on. I appreciate the fact that they included MAA in the group, but I do not want to confuse our members into thinking that this is something they should be reporting on, because, at present, it is not.
PQRI reporting begins 1 JAN 2010. The committee is in the process of developing a series of e-mail and informational messages that they request that each agency post on their website. Each week, the committee meets via conference call to discuss the next message.
The first messages follow.
More messages will follow, approximately weekly until the end of Dec 2009.