Physicians Take Note – Physician Compare Review Period Has Begun

The federal Physician Compare database maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a searchable public record of Medicare physicians and other clinicians. The database includes information on quality performance measures and patient survey scores as well as basic information about physicians, such as specialty and location. The public reporting of this information is intended to help Medicare beneficiaries make informed choices about their healthcare.

The Physician Compare preview period began on June 22, 2020. Physicians have until August 20 (60 days from the beginning of the preview period) to preview the 2018 Quality Payment Program performance information that will be publicly available on Physician Compare profile pages and in the downloadable database later in 2020. Physicians and physician practices who are not eligible for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and MIPS Alternative Payment Model participants who voluntarily submitted Performance Year (PY) 2018 MIPS performance information will have the opportunity to opt-out of having their PY 2018 performance information publicly reported on Physician Compare.

We strongly encourage all physicians to take advantage of this preview period to make sure they are aware of the information that will be made public about them. We also encourage physicians and physician practices that may be eligible to opt-out of having their information posted to carefully preview their information so that an informed decision can be made as to whether allowing public performance information is in their best interest.

Details on how to preview physician performance information (and opt-out, if applicable) is available through the Physician Compare Preview Period User Guide.

Disclaimer: This post is written in general terms and is not a substitute for legal advice or intended to create an attorney-client relationship.

Sam Cohen is Curi’s Senior Vice President of Health Policy. Curi members may contact him directly at sam.cohen@curi.com and 919.878.7602. Readers also can follow him on Twitter @samuel_c_cohen.