2020 Quality Payment Program Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception
Practices that have been approved by CMS for an Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception for COVID-19 or a natural disaster (e.g. wildfires or hurricanes) and are registered to submit Quality Data to CMS through NACOR must notify AQI no later than Saturday, March 20 at 5 p.m. CT.
To notify AQI of your practice's exemption status, submit a ticket by emailing nacorsupport@asahq.org.
If AQI does not receive notification through a support ticket, AQI will follow customary procedures for sending your practice's data to CMS. If CMS receives data from a group or individual that has a hardship exemption, CMS will score the data submitted.
To see if your practice has been approved for an Exception, check the Quality Payment Program Website using the QPP Participation Status Tool.
Register for 2021 NACOR reporting
Quality reporting practices can now begin the enrollment process for Anesthesia Quality Institute's (AQI) 2021 NACOR Quality Reporting by completing the new online order form. NACOR is a designated QR and QCDR for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Quality Payment Program.
AQI's NACOR quality reporting options include the following offerings in 2021 to ensure that NACOR remains the leader in anesthesiology: Quality Concierge, NACOR Quality Reporting, NACOR Benchmarking, and NACOR Basic.
All practices re-enrolling in NACOR Quality Reporting, Benchmarking or Basic should complete a new order form for 2021. Practices enrolled in Quality Concierge are not required to complete the form.
Note: The 2021 Registration Deadline is October 1, 2021.
2021 MIPS measures
For the 2021 reporting year, CMS has changed the measure IDs from MIPS to QID (e.g., reporting MIPS 424 in 2020, CMS now refers to the measure as QID 424). For 2021 data submissions to AQI, the data file format requires the use of “MIPS” as part of the measure IDs. Please continue to submit the 2021 QID’s as MIPS IDs.
Email askaqi@asahq.org with any questions.
2021 Internal Improvement Measures released
AQI recently released Internal Improvement Measures for reporting to the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR). The collection of 26 measures is intended for internal improvement purposes only and are optional for practices to report.
Reporting these measures may aid a practice in benchmarking their performance, demonstrating their value and quality care to payers and facility administrations, or as part of practice and quality improvement initiatives.
CMS has not recognized and will not accept these measures as part of an anesthesiologist's or practice's participation in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), or as part of an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM). AQI will not send data gathered on these measures to CMS.
2020 Quality Reporting reconciliation process underway
AQI has started the quality reporting reconciliation process for practices, in which AQI compares the EC types reported on a practice's order form with information contained in a practice's data file.
For each data file submitted, AQI confirms the membership status of each EC to determine if they are eligible to receive the ASA member benefit rate for NACOR Quality Reporting. AQI then counts the number of all EC categories (i.e., ASA Member and non-member physician anesthesiologists, ASA Educational Member and non-member care team staff, and ASA Educational Member and non-member Independent CRNAs) and compares them to information provided in the practice's order form.
A practice will receive an invoice, if applicable, for the difference between the numbers provided on the original orders and data submitted to AQI. Invoices are targeted to be sent at the end of April.