Alteon Health, a physician-owned and physician-led acute care medical group based in Germantown, MD, recently became a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved vendor that is in the business of improving healthcare quality. QCDRs may include specialty societies, regional health collaboratives, large health systems, or software vendors working in collaboration with one of these medical entities.¹

By Paula Hartman-Stein, Ph.D.

The first quality improvement system implemented by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) in 2007 was designed to improve healthcare quality and reward clinicians for their efforts. The newest iteration, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), has similar goals but focuses on value not volume while saving money for CMS by making it more difficult for clinicians to obtain bonuses while raising penalties.