American Board of Family Medicine’s Physicians Quality Reporting System registry

In 2006, Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act, which included provisions requiring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to establish a quality reporting system, the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (now called the Physicians Quality Reporting System), for eligible health care providers that would include financial incentives for participants.1 This system initially used a fairly cumbersome set of “G codes” for reporting quality indicators as part of the claims process. Subsequently, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 provided an alternative registry method for reporting quality indicators in the incentive program.1 Under the registry method, quality organizations could apply to become approved registries and submit data on behalf of their clients. The application process included interviews by CMS staff and a description of the organization’s proposed registry architecture and structure. The first registries approved became active during the second half of 2008. The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) was the only medical specialty board approved in the initial group of registries.