AAOS and FOS support Voluntary Medicare Quality Reporting Act of 2007

The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the Alliance of Specialty Medicine have announced support of the Voluntary Medicare Quality Reporting Act (VMQRA) of 2007 (S.1519). As orthopaedic surgeons recently expressed to Members of Congress during the National Orthopaedic Leadership Council, the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) in the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 does not establish a clearly defined process for developing measures or give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) time to assess the impact of PQRI. Currently, the voluntary quality measure reporting system for physicians begins on July 1, 2007. A permanent reporting system is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2008. VMQRA, introduced by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), would alter the existing timeline, by requiring the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate the 2007 PQRI trial and report findings to Congress by June 1, 2008. It would also require that the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement of the American Medical Association be the focal point for designating clinical areas needing quality measures, thus ensuring that physicians are involved in the process and that measures are evidence-based and developed in conjunction with the medical specialty society with expertise in the area. The AAOS is a founding member of the Alliance, which represents 11 medical specialty societies and more than 200,000 physicians. For more information:

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