Notice of Deadline Extension: Hospital IQR Program Voluntary Reporting of the Hybrid Hospital-Wide Readmission Measure Deadline Extended to January 4, 2019

The deadline for the voluntary reporting of Hybrid Hospital-Wide Readmission (HWR) measure data under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program has been extended from Friday, December 14, 2018, to Friday, January 4, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. This extension is being granted to provide hospitals and their vendors with additional time to voluntarily submit data for the Hybrid HWR measure.

Voluntary Reporting of the Hybrid HWR Measure

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital quality reporting system is accepting submissions of Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category I files for the voluntary Hybrid HWR measure via the QualityNet Secure Portal.

Hospitals should submit data for discharges that occurred between January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018. For more information, visit the Voluntary Hybrid HWR measure overview page on QualityNet.

QRDA Category I files for the Voluntary Hybrid HWR measure should be:

• Batched and submitted separately from the QRDA Category I files for electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) under the Hospital IQR and the Promoting Interoperability Programs. (eCQMs and the Voluntary Hybrid HWR measure use different system processing pathways.)
• Submitted into the HQR_IQR_VOL program folder in the QualityNet Secure Portal.

Pre-Submission Validation Application

Before submission to CMS, hospitals can use the Pre-Submission Validation Application (PSVA) tool to confirm whether the QRDA Category I files they plan to submit are properly formatted. If the file is improperly formatted, the PSVA tool also helps identify the source of error(s) contained in the file.

The PSVA tool is available for download from the Secure File Transfer area in the QualityNet Secure Portal. You can also visit QualityReportingCenter.com for the August 8, 2018 webinar materials, entitled Pre-Submission Validation Application (PSVA) Overview for Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Data Submission in Calendar Year (CY) 2018.

NOTE: The PSVA tool will require users to download a new version of the PSVA tool if it has not been updated since November 20, 2018. If a PSVA tool update is available, users will be prompted to update the tool. Users can download the latest version of the tool after logging into the Secure File Transfer application within the QualityNet Secure Portal.

Contacts

• For questions concerning the QualityNet Secure Portal, PSVA tool, and file error messages, please contact the QualityNet Help Desk at qnetsupport@hcqis.org or (866) 288-8912.
• For questions regarding eCQM specifications, value sets, and appropriateness of mapping, please submit questions via the Hybrid Measures Issue Tracker JIRA Page at: https://oncprojectracking.healthit.gov/support/projects/CHM/issues/CHM-23?filter=allopenissues.
• For questions regarding the voluntary Hybrid HWR measure methodology, specifications (e.g., cohort inclusions/exclusions, risk adjustment, outcome, planned readmission algorithm), and previous measure testing and development, please email the Hybrid Measure Inbox at CMShybridmeasures@yale.edu.

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