The Updated 2020 CMS QRDA I IG, Schematron, and Sample File for Hospital Quality Reporting Are Now Available

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated and republished the 2020 CMS Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category I Implementation Guide (IG), Schematron, and Sample File for Hospital Quality Reporting (HQR) to support the Health Level Seven International (HL7) QRDA I IG Release 1 Standard for Trial Use (STU) Release 5.1 (QRDA I R1 STU R5.1) Errata released in October 2019.

The CMS QRDA I IG outlines requirements for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals reporting electronic clinical quality measures for the:

Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program
Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals

Updates to the 2020 CMS QRDA I IG for HQR include:

Updated language to clarify that the base IG for the 2020 CMS QRDA I IG is the HL7 QRDA I R1 STU R5.1 and its subsequent Errata update.
Added Appendix 9 for “Guidance for Reason Template Placement When Specifying ‘Not Done’ with a Reason” to include guidance from the “Processing Consideration” section in Volume 1 of the HL7 QRDA I R1 STU R5.1 October 2019 Errata.
Added Appendix 10 “Ensuring Data Uniqueness” to include guidance from the “Processing Consideration” section in Volume 1 of the HL7 QRDA I R1 STU R5.1 October 2019 Errata.

Updates to the 2020 CMS QRDA I Schematron:

CMS has updated the 2020 CMS QRDA I Schematron in order to better align it with its base HL7 QRDA I R1 STU R5.1 and support the October 2019 Errata. Updates include:

Changes for the Errata
Correcting assertion texts so that they match the base IGs
Removing old unused assertions

Updates to the 2020 CMS QRDA I Sample File:

The 2020 CMS QRDA I Sample File has been updated to support the QRDA I R1 STU R5.1 October 2019 Errata.

Other Sample File Updates: The updated Sample File contains the correction of a typo:

Incorrect example reporting period end date in the Reporting Parameters section: Incorrect line:
Corrected line:
- The Reporting Parameter Section effective date range must exactly match one of the HQR allowable calendar year discharge quarters.

Additional QRDA-Related Resources:

Additional QRDA-related resources, as well as current and past implementation guides, are found on the Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center QRDA page. For questions related to this guidance, the QRDA Implementation Guides or Schematrons, visit the ONC Project Tracking System (Jira) QRDA project.