2022 NACOR reporting registration deadline October 3

The deadline to register for 2022 NACOR reporting (Quality, Benchmarking, and Basic) and renew 2022 ASA Membership is Monday, October 3. New practices and practices re-enrolling should complete a registration form.

NOTE: Quality Concierge practices are now required to complete the Quality Concierge registration form. This will serve as confirmation to submit your data to CMS.

For clinicians to receive ASA Member pricing for 2022 NACOR reporting, clinicians must have an active 2022 ASA membership. Final payment for AQI services is determined by 2022 ASA membership status.

For more information, email AskAQI@asahq.org.

ABG 41 Measure Specification Update

An update has been made to the denominator criteria for ABG 41. Practices interested in reporting this measure can submit the surgical CPT code and / or the ASA CPT code. Both codes are NOT required.

The AQI 2022 QCDR Measure Book has been updated to reflect this change.

Review your NACOR dashboard

Practices that have recently uploaded new data files should review the NACOR dashboard as it allows you to monitor your providers' performance, as well as pinpoint any problems with the data and make necessary corrections prior to data submission deadlines.

Data completeness requirements for the 2022 MIPS Performance Period are:

• Submit 12 months of data (January – December 2022).;
• Report a minimum of six measures with at least one outcome or high priority measure.
• Measure must meet the 20-case minimum to be scored.
• Reporting rate must be at least 70% of all eligible cases across all payers for each measure reported.

Note: The minimum point threshold to avoid a negative payment adjustment has increased from 60 to 75 points for the 2022 performance year. It is important to check the measure performance rates for your practice to make sure the measures reported will earn the maximum points allowed for the Quality Component.

As a reminder, section 8 of the Addendum for Quality Reporting to the NACOR Participation Agreement states that your practice "and each EC agree, and Participant shall require each EC, to review his/her measure results in AQI at least four times a year and provide timely feedback to AQI on the measures that will be reported on the EC's behalf."

If there are questions about the dashboard results, submit a ticket to nacorsupport@asahq.org

Intraoperative Hypotension Survey

ASA and the Anesthesia Quality Institute (AQI) want to hear from anesthesia groups regarding whether their practices collect and report data on intraoperative hypotension for noncardiac surgical cases. Studies have shown that low mean arterial pressure during non-cardiac surgery is associated with increased risk of acute kidney injury, myocardial injury, and mortality and the risk is a function of both hypotension severity and duration. Please take this brief survey (4-6 minutes) regarding your current practice, and/or challenges, with collecting and reporting hypotension data. Your input will help inform ASA/AQI quality improvement efforts and the development of future anesthesia quality measures.

If you are eligible to complete the survey, and as a thank you for completing the survey, you will have the chance to win one of five $200 gift cards (if you provide your email address at the end of the survey). You will not be contacted unless you have won (or answered that you are willing to participate in a follow-up interview.

NOTE: Only one person within your practice per facility should complete the survey.

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Tom Miller, ASA Director of Analytics and Research Services (t.miller@asahq.org).

Thank you in advance for your time and expertise!

September Office Hours

The September Office Hours call was cancelled so no recording will be posted to the AQI Website for this month.

The next session will be held on October 11.

If you have any suggestions for topics to be covered during the October session email askaqi@asahq.org.