Office Hours December 8
AQI's regularly scheduled Quality Reporting Office Hours are scheduled at 11 a.m. Tuesday, December 8. Office Hour recordings and slides from previous months are now available on the AQI website. If you have a question or topic that you would like addressed during Office Hours, email askaqi@asahq.org.
AQI Vendor Webinar December 10
AQI is hosting a vendor webinar at 1:30 p.m. CST, Thursday, December 10. The agenda will include review of 2020 Reporting deadlines, 2021 schema changes, data deletion requests and 2020 Quality and Improvement Activity audits. Register online now.
Attesting to Improvement Activities via NACOR
Clinicians can start attesting to 2020 Improvement Activities in the NACOR Dashboard if the practice is reporting as a group. The NACOR dashboard will be updated for those who are reporting as individuals the week of December 7. In the step-by-step tutorial available under the 2020 Administrative Resources section on the AQI Website, clinicians learn how to select and attest to an Improvement Activity.
As participants of NACOR, practices can attest to activity IA_PSPA_1: Participation in an AHRQ-listed patient safety organization. This is a medium-weighted activity worth 10 points. Practices also must document the date range that the Improvement Activity was performed in the practice list in the NACOR dashboard. For more information, email askaqi@asahq.org
FTP access - Inactive after 90 days
For security reasons, all FTP accounts (for those who upload data to NACOR) will be disabled if no activity occurs within a 90-day window. If you suspect your account has been disabled due to inactivity, submit a help desk ticket by emailing NACORSupport@asahq.org. FTP access has no impact on user access to the NACOR dashboard.
Review your NACOR dashboard
Remember to review your 2020 quality reports in the NACOR dashboard. For practices that have uploaded new data files, AQI encourages a member of the practice to review the NACOR dashboard, as it allows practices to monitor providers' performance, as well as pinpoint any problems with the data and make necessary corrections prior to data submission deadlines. For more information, email AskAQI@asahq.org.
CMS releases 2021 Quality Payment Program Final Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released this week the 2021 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Final Rule. The rule outlines how the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Alternative Payment Models and other features of the QPP will operate during the 2021 performance year, as well as some guidance on development of MIPS Value Pathways for 2022.
In 2021, QPP participants will see the following modifications to the program:
- The MIPS performance threshold will be set at 60 points. Individuals and groups receiving less than 60 points will incur a payment penalty (under 15 points incurs a -9% adjustment) in 2023 and those earning more than 60 points will receive a payment increase in 2023.
- The quality performance category will be weighted at 40% and the cost performance category will be weighted at 20%. Promoting interoperability and Improvement Activities performance categories will maintain their respective 25% and 15% weights.
Other features of the program will remain the same as in 2021, including:
- Eligibility requirements, special statuses, and the ability to opt-in to report MIPS;
- The Anesthesiology MIPS measure set; and
- Requirements that 50% of the NPIs in a practice must participate in the same Improvement Activity during any 90-day period in the performance period.
CMS also released guidance on MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) for the 2022 performance year. ASA is encouraged by CMS direction that MVPs take into consideration multiple specialties that contribute to an episode of care.
ASA expects to update its Quality Payment Program website in the next few weeks with regulatory information, and the Anesthesia Quality Institute expects to publish its 2021 QCDR measures book by mid-December. CMS expects to publish the 2021 MIPS measure specifications and other regulatory guidance within the next few weeks on the QPP website.
For more information, email the ASA Department of Quality and Regulatory Affairs (QRA) at qra@asahq.org.