​As CMS releases statistics on the 2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) payment adjustment for the first time to the public, via the “2013 PQRS and Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program Experience Report”, publication of the Physician Quality Reporting Programs Strategic Vision (or “Strategic Vision”) is also being announced. This Strategic Vision describes a long-term vision for CMS quality measurement for physicians, professionals, and public reporting programs, and how they can be optimized and aligned to support better decision-making from doctors, consumers, and every part of the healthcare system. The physician quality programs support CMS’s vision of a health system that achieves better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. These programs support incentives to providers, encourage improvements in care delivery, and deliver information to consumers.

There are five principles CMS believes will ensure that quality measurement and public reporting play a critical role in improving the healthcare delivered to millions of Americans:

• Input from patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals will guide the programs.
• Feedback and data drives rapid cycle quality improvement.
• Public reporting provides meaningful, transparent, and actionable information.
• Quality reporting programs rely on an aligned measure portfolio.
• Quality reporting and value-based purchasing program policies are aligned.

CMS relies heavily on quality measurement and public reporting to facilitate the delivery of high quality care. This Strategic Vision articulates how CMS will build upon successful physician quality reporting programs to reach a future-state where quality measurement and public reporting are optimized to help achieve the CMS Quality Strategy’s goals and objectives, and, therefore, contribute to improved healthcare quality across the nation, including better care, smarter spending, and healthier people.

The Strategic Vision evolved out of CMS’s desire to plan for the future in how PQRS, Physician Feedback/Value-Based Payment Modifier Program (Value Modifier), and other physician quality reporting programs are administered. With passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2), key components of these physician programs will serve as the foundation for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. The Strategic Vision describes in concrete terms how CMS will advance the goals and objectives for quality improvement outlined in the CMS Quality Strategy through these quality measurement and reporting programs.

These quality measurements and public reporting goals and initiatives encourage stakeholder engagement; reduce participation burden for healthcare professionals; and support meaningful public reporting. CMS’s long-term vision for physician quality reporting programs and the improvement of these programs challenges us to continue striving for excellence in healthcare quality over the next several years.