Medicare rewards Utah doctors

Utah physicians earned more than $1.5 million in performance payments from Medicare during the past year for providing high quality preventive care for patients with chronic illness.

Incentive payments ranged from $260 to $62,500 per medical practice, with payments made after scrutiny of clinical quality performance, the number of patients treated and other factors, according to HealthInsight, the Medicare quality improvement agency, which contracts with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In its first year, the Medicare Care Management Performance demonstration included participation by 108 Utah physician offices.

"Participating in this demonstration project has enhanced our 10 clinics' meaningful use of health information technology," said Annie Mervis, University Health Care Community Clinics quality manager. "Electronic health records (EHR) can be so much more than just electronic filing cabinets. The ability to pull performance data out of our EHR allows us to measure and track improvement across all our patients as a group."

The project helped doctors address all the needs of patients, not just one preventive or chronic disease need at a time, she said.

Of the four clinical areas measured, Utah doctors performed best in management of coronary artery disease, with patients receiving appropriate care 85 percent of the time.

— Carrie Moore