CMS: Physicians choose penalties over participation in quality reporting, e-prescribing programs

A new CMS report found that the agency paid more than $380 million in incentive payments through its physician quality reporting system and electronic prescribing programs, but 470,000 providers chose pay cuts over participation, according to Modern Healthcare.

Complaints about the complicated reporting requirements led many physicians and other professionals to accept a 1.5% reduction in 2015 payments based on data from the Physician Quality Reporting System program; nearly 50,000 eligible professionals had a reduction in 2014 through the e-prescribing program. The most common reason for the penalties in both cases was declining to participate, Modern Healthcare reported.

Read the Modern Healthcare article.