CMS updates guidance for electronic clinical quality measure reporting

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week issued an appendix to the Quality Reporting Data Architecture Implementation Guide for hospitals and eligible professionals submitting electronic clinical quality measures to Medicare quality reporting programs for calendar year 2016. The appendix updates information on the QRDA Category I and III reports, technically corrects some of the QRDA templates and clarifies elements used for hospital eCQM calculations. Hospitals participating in the inpatient quality reporting program must submit third- or fourth-quarter data for four eCQMs in the QRDA-I format for CY 2016. CMS also pre-released information on 2017 changes to the eCQM standards, terminology and measure specifications. The annual update of the eCQMs will be published in April 2016. For more on hospital inpatient quality reporting eCQMs, visit the Center for Quality Reporting and Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement Resource Center.