On Dec. 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it has expanded and updated its online Healthcare Provider Directory with a new feature called Physician Compare.

"The new Physician Compare tool begins to fill an important gap in our online tools by providing more information about physicians and other health care workers," said Donald Berwick, MD, CMS administrator. "This helps to pave the way for consumers to have similar information about their physicians as they have for nursing homes, home health agencies, and health and drug plans."

The new site, located at www.medicare.gov/find-a-doctor, was required by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. It contains information about physicians enrolled in the Medicare program, which include Doctors of Medicine, Osteopathy, Optometry, Podiatric Medicine and Chiropractic. The site also contains information about other types of health professionals who routinely care for Medicare beneficiaries, including nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, registered dietitians, physical therapists, physician assistants and occupational therapists.

The information on the site includes contact and address information for offices, the professional's medical specialty, where the professional completed his or her degree as well as residency or other clinical training, whether the professional speaks a foreign language, and the professional's gender. The search tool defaults to identifying providers who accept the Medicare-approved amount as payment in full on all claims; however, the user may select an unlimited search for providers.

In addition to information about the physician's practice, Physician Compare also shows consumers whether the practice reported certain data to CMS through the Physician Quality Reporting System, formerly known as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). The PQRI system rewards physicians and other eligible health care professionals for reporting data on quality measures related to services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries. According to CMS, those quality measures are based on the best available medical evidence and designed to help professionals improve care for patients. In 2009, over 200,000 professionals reported data to CMS through PQRI.

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