CMS, ONC and other Federal agencies have been working to leverage emerging health information technology (health IT) in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to improve the quality of care that is available to their beneficiaries. In Meaningful Use Stage 2, a key component of this work is electronic reporting of quality data to CMS and the certification of electronic health record (EHR) technology to ensure the accurate capture, calculation, and reporting of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs). The specifications for the 2014 eCQMs finalized in Meaningful Use Stage 2 of the EHR incentive program are now available. We expect the new meaningful use clinical quality measures will provide invaluable feedback for providers on performance and clinicians’ alignment with best practices.

We’ve also worked with key agencies and representatives from the industry to provide a number of resources that will support the technical implementation and use of electronic meaningful use clinical quality measures for reporting and corresponding EHR certification. When you visit the website, you will see that the eCQMs and value sets are now delivered in various formats that can be used by technical, non-technical and clinical consumers. Included is the Data Element Catalog,  which lists the data element names, element vocabularies and the associated clinical quality measures for which the elements are required for capture and calculation in EHR technology certified under the 2014 Edition of the ONC Standards and Certification criteria. Separately, measure definitions, logic, data elements and value sets are available through the new Value Set Authority Center  and the United States Health Information Knowledgebase.

Our regulations define the criteria by which electronic health records are certified to capture, calculate, and report eCQMs. Under the regulations, certification testing can be through the use of open source software tools, including the Cypress  eCQM testing platform. The process for submitting the Cypress tool for official approval in the ONC Certification Program is currently under way.

We Want to Hear From You

We look forward to full implementation of electronic reporting in 2014 and the certification of EHRs that use CQMs. We welcome your feedback on the meaningful use clinical quality measures, the new resources provided and how we can continue to serve you better. Use the comment section below to provide your thoughts.

For More Information

HealthIT.gov: Clinical Quality Measures

CMS Website