A study published in the April issue of The Journal of Arthroplasty suggests that the costs of collecting and reporting patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data on total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures may exceed payment penalties called for by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
CMS has proposed a move to payment based on PROs, with failure to report on PROs resulting in a 2 percent payment penalty during 2016. The research team reviewed data from the 2013 Medical Group Management Association Compensation and Financial survey to physician cost to report PROs, based on an annual volume of 125 TKAs and 75 THAs, with 1,000 new patient visits and 2,000 established patient visits. They found that the cost to collect PROs ranged from $47,973 to $56,288, which far outweighed the 2016 penalty of $2,954 for failing to report the measures. Learn more...
