CMS Updates Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Resources for the 2019 Performance Period for Eligible Clinicians and Eligible Professionals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated the list of Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) that are fully specified and are available to be used for the 2019 performance period in the Quality Payment Program, which were finalized in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Final Rule.

Updated list of eCQMs and supporting documents can be found on the eCQI Resource Centerfor the following programs:

Quality Payment Program: The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (Advanced APMs)
Advanced APM: Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+)
Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program for Eligible Professionals(formerly known as the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program)

The following are changes to eCQMs available for eligible professionals and eligible clinicians for 2019 reporting:

New eCQMs finalized for 2019 performance period:

CMS249v1: Appropriate Use of DXA Scans in Women Under 65 Years Who Do Not Meet the Risk Factor Profile for Osteoporotic Fracture
CMS349v1: HIV Screening

eCQMs removed from 2019 performance period:

CMS65v8: Hypertension: Improvement in Blood Pressure
CMS123v7: Comprehensive Diabetes Care: Foot Exam
CMS158v7: Pregnant women that had HBsAg testing
CMS164v7: Ischemic Vascular Disease (IVD): Use of Aspirin or Another Antiplatelet
CMS167v7: Diabetic Retinopathy: Documentation of Presence or Absence of Macular Edema and Level of Severity of Retinopathy
CMS169v7: Bipolar Disorder and Major Depression: Appraisal for alcohol or chemical substance use

These changes are reflected in updated links to measure specifications and supporting documents posted on the eCQI Resource Center: https://ecqi.healthit.gov/eligible-professional-eligible-clinician-ecqms

Please also refer to Appendix 1: Finalized MIPS Quality Measures of the CY 2019 PFS Final Rule for a complete list of new measures (Table Group A), finalized quality measure specialty sets (Table Group B), measures finalized for removal (Table Group C), and measures finalized with substantive changes (Table Group D) for the 2019 performance period. Furthermore, please note that measures with substantive changes may have changes to benchmarks for 2019. We recommend reviewing these changes in the 2019 Quality Benchmarks file which will be available on the QPP Resource Library later this Fall.

CMS requires that for the Quality Payment Program, the most recent published specifications applicable to the performance period to be used. The eCQM specifications for eligible professionals and eligible clinicians published on the eCQI Resource Center in May 2018 and the applicable addendum published in September 2018 must be used for the 2019 performance period.