“The well-intended but complicating reporting requirement for a provider when giving health care has a negative effect on availability. Providers see fewer patients. Providers now often see the computer screen while providing healthcare. “Talking to the screen” instead of “talking to the patient” damages the experience for both. It removes much of the pleasure of giving your best healthcare to the person in front of you.” Bill Chesnut, MD
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Quality reporting costs physicians thousands of dollars per year.
A study published in the March 2016 issue of the journal Health Affairs examines physician payment systems in the United States. Researchers surveyed 394 physician practices and found that physicians and staff averaged 15.1 hours per physician per week processing quality metrics—an equivalent of 785.2 hours per physician per year—at an average cost of $40,069 per physician per year. However, they noted that time and money spent reporting was lower for specialists compared to primary care physicians; primary care physicians averaged 3.9 hours per week dealing with quality measures, compared with 1.1 hours for orthopaedists. The researchers agree that much is to be gained from quality measurement, but write that “the current system is unnecessarily costly, and greater effort is needed to standardize measures and make them easier to report.”
Read more… http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/physician-leaders/processing-quality-measures-costs-40k-physician-year
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