Organized medicine calls on physicians to provide feedback on the reports, to be used to adjust Medicare payments beginning in 2015.

Washington Physicians in four states have access to individual reports that are used to determine the quality and costs of their care in comparison to other doctors treating Medicare Plan patients, but there are many doctors who have failed to download the reports.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has assembled individual quality and resource use reports for physicians treating patients in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. WPS, the Medicare contractor for the jurisdiction, has emailed practices a web link to obtain the reports, but only 3,300 out of 23,730 have downloaded the reports as of the end of March.

Medical societies on behalf of physicians in the four states are motivating doctors to download the reports and provide feedback on the program. The reports detail per capita cost and quality reporting information in 2010 and give doctors an idea of how data will be used to adjust Medicare Plan pay for some physicians under a value-based modifier that will take effect in 2015.

This is the third phase of the report card program. In 2009, CMS sent hard-copy reports to about 240 physicians. Electronic reports have been made available to more than 1,600 physicians and 36 medical groups in 2010.

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