2023 NACOR Reporting Registration Deadline: October 2

The deadline to register for 2023 NACOR reporting (Quality, Benchmarking, and Basic) and renew 2023 ASA Membership is Monday, October 2. New practices and practices re-enrolling should complete a registration form.

For clinicians to receive ASA Member pricing for 2023 NACOR reporting, clinicians must have an active 2023 ASA membership. Final payment for AQI services is determined by 2023 ASA membership status.

For more information, email AskAQI@asahq.org.

ASA Submits Comments to CMS on Physician Payments and Quality Programs

This week, ASA issued a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to the CY 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program proposed rule. On the quality section of the rule, ASA opposed a proposal to increase the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) penalty threshold from 75 points to 82 points, as this policy would result in over half of MIPS participants incurring a penalty and disadvantage specialties like anesthesiology.

ASA also urged CMS to reconsider the proposed increase of the MIPS data completeness threshold from 75% to 80% starting in the CY 2027 performance period, as the policy fails to account for physician and group reporting burdens, as well as the resource-limited anesthesia groups that use paper records. ASA encouraged CMS to build off the current measures within the Anesthesia MIPS Value Pathway and finalize ABG44: Low Flow Inhalational General Anesthesia and EPREOP31: Intraoperative Hypotension among Non-Emergent Noncardiac Surgical Cases in the 2024 anesthesia MVP.

Click here to read ASA’s Washington Alert on its comments.

For more information on the Quality Payment Program, please contact the ASA Department of Quality and Regulatory Affairs (QRA) at qra@asahq.org.

Targeted Review Deadline: October 9

For groups that have not reviewed their PY 2022 MIPS scores, you may preview those scores and submit a request for a targeted review if needed. The MIPS targeted review period, which provides transparency on the calculation of 2024 MIPS payment adjustments, is now open through October 9, 2023. Groups should access those scores via the Quality Payment Program website.

In addition to the Quality and Improvement Activities performance categories, groups should remember to check their Cost Performance category scores. Anesthesiologists are typically not scored in that category. If anesthesia groups are scored, the likely measure to be scored on is the Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary measure. Anesthesiologists are excluded from receiving a score for the Total Per Capita Cost (TPCC) measure.

If you feel there are any errors in your scores, including incorrect scoring of the Total Per Capita Costs scores, please email nacorsupport@asahq.org or qra@asahq.org. We also encourage you to follow CMS’s directions for requesting a targeted review.

Plan to Attest your MIPS Improvement Activity (IA)

To earn points in the IA component an eligible clinician or group needs to perform or participate in any improvement activity for a minimum of ninety consecutive days. The final 90-day period starts October 1 and ends December 31, 2023.

For groups to attest to an activity, at least 50% of the clinicians (under the Tax ID number [TIN]) must perform the same activity during any continuous 90-day period, or as specified in the activity description, within the same performance period.

The list of Improvement Activities supported by AQI can be found here.

Practices should maintain documentation regarding the IA for 6 years. Documentation should include a list of the NPIs that participated in the activity as well as how the IA was completed.

If you have any questions, email askaqi@asahq.org or qra@asahq.org.

NACOR Practice Audits to Begin in November

To remain in good standing as a Qualified Registry and Qualified Clinical Data Registry, AQI and NACOR are required to submit an annual data validation plan to the CMS.

To comply with these CMS data validation standards, AQI will audit the Quality, Improvement Activity, and Promoting Interoperability components for randomly selected practices. Practices selected for audit will be notified via certified letter within the next 30 days with instructions on how to complete the audit.

For more information, email askaqi@asahq.org.

Visit the AQI at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2023 in San Francisco in the Resource Center

Visit us at Anesthesiology 2023 in the Exhibit Hall (#1061, ASA Resource Center) at the Moscone Center from October 14-17. We’re happy to answer any questions and provide guidance on registry processes.