Medicare ACO - CQM/eCQM Reporting Option
Starting in 2022, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the Shared Savings Program are required to report via the APM Performance Pathway (APP) for the purpose of assessing their quality performance for that program.
Under the APP, ACOs have the option to report the 10 CMS Web Interface measures or submit 3 eCQM or MIPS CQM measures.
Within the new reporting option, ACOs must submit 3 specific quality measures (as eCQMs or MIPS CQMs collection type) and administer the CAHPS for MIPS Survey. In addition, there are 2 administrative claims measures that we’ll automatically calculate for you. Please see below for more information about this quality measure set.
​
3 MIPS CQM / eCQM Quality Measures
-
Quality ID #1 (NQF 0059): Diabetes: Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) Poor Control (>9%)
-
Quality ID #236 (NQF 0018): Controlling High Blood Pressure
-
Quality ID #134 (NQF 0418): Screening for Depression and Follow-Up Plan
2 Claims-Based Measures​
-
Hospital-Wide, 30-day All-Cause Unplanned Readmission (HWR)
-
Risk Standardized: All-Cause Unplanned Admissions for Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCC)
1 CAHPS for MIPS​
CQM/eCQM ENTITY OVERVIEW
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Step 1: Security Official Training (ACO Leadership)
​
Step 2: Planning for 70% of all Payers
​
Step 3: Learn the Measures and Patient Selection
​
Step 4: Select Data Import Types for all Facilities
​
Step 5: SFTP Account Setup
​
Step 6: Complete Gap Analysis, Scoring and Scorecard Training
​
Step 7: Documentation Audits
​
​
Step 1: Security Official Training (ACO Leadership)
Your Security Official is the top level in the hierarchy of user roles and permissions. This person will manage user account credentials, data import priorities and maintain facility and provider network configuration in the solution. You may have multiple users with the Security Official role.
​
​
-
My Team is used to set-up new users or update access for current users.
​​
-
Quality Import Chart is used to configure data priorities such as EHR and claims.
​
-
Network Manager is used to configure:
-
Assignment for patients on Commercial Membership Rosters.​
-
Assignment for patients on ACO Attribution List - HALR (Historical Assignment) and QALR (Quarterly Assignment List Report) files.
-
Create Divisions, facilities, locations and providers.
-
​
​​​
Step 2: Planning for 70% of all Payers
One change for Medicare ACOs that is mandatory for 2022, is the requirement to report the quality measures for 70% of the TOTAL measure denominator. The measure denominator includes ALL patients. This would include Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, commercial and non-insured patients.
​
Health Endeavors will start creating patients from the ACO attribution list during account setup. We will also require your non-ACO patient rosters or commercial claims data to import all additional patients into Health Endeavors for year-round tracking.
​
We are requesting that ACOs collect these additional patients from their practices and send to Health Endeavors via an SFTP download using the Excel template below.
Step 3: Learn the Measures and Patient Selection
ACO Management Team and all participating providers should get familiar with the measures.
The Measures Overview Document will bring you to a spreadsheet which contains:
-
A 2021 measure summary of CMS Web Interface measures and CQM/eCQM Measures​
-
A 2022 measures summary for the CQM/eCQM Measures
-
Measures Scoring Weight
-
Definition of Data Sources
-
2021 Data Sources overview by measures
-
Quality Data Code (QDC) Worksheet for using claims (2021 performance Year)
-
Summary of the Administrative Claims Measures
-
FHIR Resources Summary
​​
The Measures Specifications is a summary of the quality measures including links to the CMS documents.
​
Step 4: Select Data Import Types for ALL Facilities
Health Endeavors meets with each clinic to determine the best data imports and processes for their workflow. Multiple options are available for data integration:
​
-
- CPT Category II codes and HCPCS Level II codes.
-
- (Single Patient Report) Individual patient-level report that contains data defined in the measure. (Click here for more QRDA information in the eCQI Resource Center)
-
- Use the Flat File import Template to enter measure responses for import into Health Endeavors. Flat files can be submitted via your SFTP account.
-
Manual Key - Manually enter quality measure answers in Health Endeavors.
​
Click here for a link to our Quality Data Flow Chart
​
Step 5: SFTP Account Setup
The participating provider will need a SFTP account to securely transfer quality measure data.
Please complete the SFTP Connection Worksheet and email to support@healthendeavors.com. Once Health Endeavors has completed setup the user will receive a secure email with login and final setup details.
Step 6: Complete Gap Analysis, Scoring and Scorecard Training
​
-
Year-Round Gaps in Care Analysis - Proactive, year-round strategy for identifying, disease and wellness gaps in care significantly improves your quality performance
​​
-
Year-Round Performance Scoring - Track year-round performance using CPT II codes, QRDA I and SMART on FHIR to avoid poor performance surprises at the end of the year. ​
​
ACO will meet the Shared Savings Program quality performance standard if:
​
-
For performance years 2021 and 2022, the ACO achieves a quality performance score that is equivalent to or higher than the 30th percentile across all MIPS Quality performance category scores; and
​​
-
For the 2023 performance year and subsequent performance years, and ACO achieves a quality performance score that is equivalent to or higher than the 40th percentile across all MIPS Quality performance category scores.
​
ACOs that meet the quality performance standard are eligible to share in savings at the maximum sharing rate, and ACOs in 2-sided models share in losses based on their quality score or at a fixed percentage based on track. ACOs that do not meet the quality performance standard are ineligible to share savings and owe the maximum amount of shared losses, if applicable.
Step 7: Documentation Audit
As a qualified registry we are required to work with Medicare on a data validation plan each year when we renew our registry and at the close of the year. Our Medicare data validation plan requires us to conduct an annual audit of each clinic participating in the registry.
This involves our team submitting a random sample of patients (securely) to the clinic to be audited by the client in the EHR to verify measure documentation. After the audit of the EHR documentation, we then meet with the clinic to review the findings.
Step 8: Register your Clinic
The final step is to Register your Clinic by clicking here:
​
Clinic Registration Steps Summary:
Frist you will be asked to confirm that your ACO has completed Step One and YOU have reviewed Steps 3-8. All are required to continue.
​
Next you will enter your Clinic information. All fields are required.
​
The final step is to enter your EHR information and capabilities. Please make sure to mark all that apply to your EHR.
​
Click 'Submit'
​
At the end of your registration setup you can sign up for additional training if desired. However, we do request you have reviewed all the steps above before scheduling additional training sessions.