Combined 2015 CMS QRDA Implementation Guide Now Available

Combined 2015 CMS QRDA Implementation Guide Now Available

News Updates | July 29, 2014 Visit the eCQM Library Page to Review the Combined 2015 CMS QRDA Implementation Guide The Combined 2015 QRDA Implementation Guide for eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to use for reporting electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) starting in the 2015 reporting year is now available on the CMS website. The 2015 Combined Implementation Guide provides technical instructions for QRDA Category I & Category III reporting for the following programs:  Hospital Quality Reporting including the EHR Incentive Programs and Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Ambulatory programs including the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) Initiative, and Pioneer ACO CMS accepted public feedback on the draft guide from June 10, 2014 to July 8, 2014, and has made revisions accordingly for inclusion in this release. The CMS 2015 QRDA Implementation Guide is updated for the 2015 reporting year, and combines business requirements and information from three previously published CMS QRDA guides: The 2014 CMS QRDA Implementation Guide for Eligible Hospital Clinical Quality Measures   The 2014 CMS QRDA I Implementation Guides for Eligible Professionals Clinical Quality Measures [zip file] The 2014 CMS QRDA III Implementation Guides for Eligible Professionals Clinical Quality Measures [zip file] About the Combined Guide Combining the above guides into a single document provides a unified resource for implementers, eliminating the need to locate the individual program guides. More importantly, combining guides harmonizes differences among earlier versions of the CMS QRDA guides, especially between the QRDA-I guides for eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and CAHs. The CMS 2015 QRDA Implementation Guide incorporates applicable technical corrections made in the new 2014 HL7 errata updates to the HL7 Implementation Guides for QRDA I and III. The new guide contains two main parts: Part A is the harmonized QRDA-I implementation guide for both eligible professionals and eligible hospitals/CAHs. Part B is the QRDA-III implementation guide for eligible professionals. It also includes appendices that annotate the changes between the HL7 QRDA-I and QRDA-III standards and the CMS QRDA specific constraints. Changes between the CMS 2014 QRDA guides and the new combined guide are provided as well. Additional Resources The 2015 CMS QRDA Implementation Guide is available for download on theeCQM Library Page in the Additional Resources section. To learn more about CQMs, visit the Clinical Quality Measures webpage.  For questions about reporting requirements using the 2015 QRDA Implementation Guide, please refer to the specific program’s help desk or information center.