Who is Already Integrating PQI?

Many hospitals and large medical practices have incorporated some form of quality improvement and monitoring program in recent years, and chances are you and your practice have been followed such an agenda as well.

For instance, the Mammography Quality Standards Act, created by Congress in 1992 and effective in 1994, is a manner of a practice improvement program that was created to ensure that all women have access to quality mammography for the detection of breast cancer. Another recent example - the requirement by United Healthcare that participating facilities be accredited by one of two national accreditation organizations in order to receive reimbursement.

Effective July 1, 2007, radiologists had the opportunity to participate in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, a voluntary quality reporting program where physicians who report a designated set of quality measures on particular claims would be eligible to receive a bonus payment.

In fact, the concept of establishing a quality assurance program for radiologists and their practices is not new, with articles addressing this issue appearing in the AJR as far back as 1979 ("Quality assurance: an idea whose time has come." AJR, 1979; 133:989-992). However, with the exponential growth of medical imaging in recent years, much of it performed by nonradiologists, and the resultant scrutiny by federal and third-party payers, the issue of quality assurance has moved to the forefront among professional concerns.