Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative: Incentives, Physician Work, and Perceived Impact on Patient Care

Even when aggressively pursued, Medicare's pay-for-performance program, PQRI, yields actual physician bonuses far less than those expected, more than an order of magnitude less than requisite incremental radiologist work, with little reported impact on quality. For such programs to engender ongoing physician participation, fundamental changes will be necessary to address discordantly low incentives and perceived lack of benefit to patient care.