NextGen clients secure $2 million in reimbursements from PQRI program

Clients of NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc. have secured nearly $2 million in reimbursements from the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) program by leveraging NextGen® Ambulatory EHR and the NextGen® Health Quality Measures (HQM) Reporting Module, a proprietary, clinical data repository designed for automated registry reporting of clinical outcomes and quality measure data for pay-for-performance (P4P) programs.

Practices of all sizes turned to NextGen HQM for their 2009 PQRI reporting. It supported all 26 measures within the program and automatically captured pure clinical data directly from an electronic health record, whereas most other EHR-based solutions rely on claims data. Incentive payments for the 2009 program were issued in late Fall 2010.

Nearly 190 employed physicians of Piedmont Healthcare, for example, used NextGen HQM to secure more than $570,000 in 2009 PQRI reimbursements. Hunterdon Healthcare Partners tracked 650,000 data points and received $120,000 in return. Small practice, New Pueblo Medicine, submitted for all nine of its providers, who in turn collected between $2,000 and $2,500 each. Additional clients reported being able to triple their PQRI incentives from 2008 to 2009 using NextGen HQM.

All three organizations will further leverage NextGen HQM to report on the clinical quality measures for Meaningful Use. New Pueblo Medicine also employed the tool to achieve Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home, and will join Piedmont Physicians Group (PPG) in using NextGen HQM as part of leading accountable care organization programs. PPG and Hunterdon Healthcare Partners are also applying NextGen HQM within the Bridges to Excellence Program.

"NextGen Healthcare's HQM tool provided seamless access to a substantial amount of high-quality data on our organization's performance," said Dr. Robert Murry, Hunterdon Healthcare Partners. "With that information, we are now able to stop wondering how are we doing, and instead determine how can we leverage it to deliver better care."

"I was thrilled the first time I ran a report through NextGen HQM because it was so easy to use," said Kim Haspert, Chief Operating Officer of New Pueblo Medicine. "In addition to several P4P programs, we're also using NextGen HQM internally to monitor quality outcomes on an ongoing basis."

The NextGen Health Quality Measures Reporting Module, a component of NextGen Healthcare's quality management portfolio, enables users to simply pre-select the measures for a P4P program; document patient encounters as part of their normal workflow; and allow NextGen® take care of the rest. Also included in the quality management portfolio is NextGen® Dashboard, a rich interface to help monitor and analyze critical data across all NextGen® ambulatory solutions and other information sources.

"Third party registries often have plug-ins for EHRs that require significant customization, while most other EHR-based solutions rely on claims data," said Scott Decker, president of NextGen Healthcare. "Integrating our reporting module directly into NextGen Healthcare's EHR saves clients from the time-consuming collection and reporting process and lets them base performance reports on true clinical data."