Now Available: 2019 CMS QRDA III EP/Eligible Clinician IG Addendum

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released an addendum to the 2019 CMS Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category III Implementation Guide (IG) for Eligible Clinicians and Eligible Professionals Programs to support Calendar Year (CY) 2019 electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM), Improvement Activity, and Promoting Interoperability reporting. The addendum includes an updated universal unique identifier (UUID) table to reflect the 2019 performance period eCQM specifications that occurred as a result of the CY 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule.

The 2019 QRDA III IG and addendum provide technical instructions for reporting for:

Quality Payment Program: Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+)
MIPS Promoting Interoperability Performance Category

The addendum also includes Improvement Activity identifiers and Promoting Interoperability Performance Category objectives and measure identifiers finalized by CMS for the MIPS CY 2019 performance period based on the CY 2019 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rulereleased in November 2018. For 2019, MIPS eligible clinicians and groups are required to submit data for a full calendar year for the Quality performance category, a minimum of 90 continuous days for the Improvement Activities performance category, and a minimum of 90 continuous days for the Promoting Interoperability performance category.

Additional Guidance on Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) ID:

For the 2019 performance period, participants will submit a single set of Promoting Interoperability Objectives and Measures and must use 2015 Edition CEHRT. As part of their submission, participants shall include a CMS EHR Certification ID that represents the CEHRT used by the individual or group during the performance period. Groups should ensure that their CMS EHR Certification ID reflects all products used by clinicians within the group before generating the ID. Only one CMS EHR Certification ID should be submitted for group reporting. To obtain a CMS EHR Certification ID, participants should enter their product information in the ONC Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) website search tool and select all certified products or certified health IT modules used during the performance period. Full instructions on how to generate a CMS EHR Certification ID are found on pages 20-28 of the CHPL Public User Guide.

QRDA-Related Resources:

Additional QRDA-related resources, as well as current and past IGs, are found on the Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement Resource Center.

For questions related to the QRDA IGs and/or Schematrons visit the ONC QRDA JIRA Issue Tracker.

For questions related to Quality Payment Program/MIPS data submissions visit the Quality Payment Program website, contact by phone 1-866-288-8292, or email QPP@cms.hhs.gov.