Quality Improvements for Medicare Patients and their Providers

I chose the article that discussed the current federal activity to develop quality improvements for Medicare patients and their providers. These quality improvements came out of President Bush’s “2008 Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act” that was made into law this past July. Congress vetoed Bush's proposal to cut provider reimbursements by 10%. Yes, this would have saved Medicare money, but Congress saw the opportunity to save money in a different way. Congress added the provision that supported quality initiatives.

Out of the three provisions established under quality and value, the financial incentives for physicians who adopt e-prescribing caught my eye. This act will give physicians who adopt e-prescribing by 2009 a 2% increase in their reimbursement; compared to the 2% decrease that physicians will get if they have not adopted e-prescribing by 2014. To me this shows that the government understands that e-prescribing will help reduce deadly prescription errors and time-consuming administrative costs. Also, Congress understood the importance of saving lives, rather than just saving money.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=700662&#federal