CMS News Center

CMS Offering QRUR Webcast Oct. 19

Officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide a live webinar Oct. 19 that will give an overview of the annual Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) made available to all group practices and solo practitioners nationwide this past September. An explanation on how to interpret and use the information will also be part of the program, CMS officials said.

The QRURs show how groups and solo practitioners performed in 2016 on the quality and cost measures used to calculate the 2018 value-based payment modifier and how the modifier will be applied to payments for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists. Phone lines are available to dial in to the event. For more information and to register, visit https://blh.ier.intercall.com

2018 eCQM Value Set Addendum Now Available

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued an addendum to the electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) annual update specifications published in May 2017. The addendum updates the eCQM value sets, technical release notes, and the binding parameter specification for the 2018 reporting period for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs), and the performance period for eligible professionals (EPs) and eligible clinicians. The information is now available online at https://ecqi.healthit.gov/eligible-professional-eligible-clinician-ecqms. 

These changes affect electronic reporting of eCQMs for the following programs:

• Quality Payment Program: Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and Alternative Payment Models
• Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program
• Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program for EPs
• Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs for eligible hospitals and CAHs.

All changes to the 2018 reporting/performance period eCQM value sets are available through the National Library of Medicine’s Value Set Authority Center (https://vsac.nlm.nih.gov/download/ecqm). The value sets are available as a complete set and as value sets per measure. Measure implementers should review these changes to ensure their submissions comply with the updated requirements. Also, note that the value sets have been revised based on updates to the following terminology code systems:

• ICD-10-CM
• Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) 
• RxNorm
• SNOMED CT
• Current Procedural Terminology and CVX (vaccines administered)
• Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System

No changes have been made to the measure logic, the Health Quality Measure Format specifications, the value set object identifiers, or the measure version numbers for 2018 eCQM reporting. Questions regarding the addendum and eCQM value sets should be submitted online (https://oncprojectracking.healthit.gov/support/projects/CQM/issues/CQM-2577?filter=allopenissues). For information about eCQM specifications and supplemental materials, visit https://ecqi.healthit.gov

New Resources Available on QPP Website

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently posted new, updated resources on its Quality Payment Program (QPP) website (https://qpp.cms.gov). The new information includes instruction on how to design an Alternative Payment Model toolkit, key QPP objectives, and a quality performance category fact sheet.

Additional resources are available in the QPP Resource Library (https://qpp.cms.gov/about/resource-library).

Changes to Medicare Audit Process Announced

Medicare will be changing to a more focused approach to auditing physicians' claims for payment. For more information on this subject, click here. (www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Medicare/67365?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2017-08-19&eun=g631503d0r&pos=22)