CMS Launches Data Submission System for Clinicians in the Quality Payment Program

Martina

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that doctors and other eligible clinicians participating in the Quality Payment Program can begin submitting their 2017 performance data using a new system on the Quality Payment Program website (qpp.cms.gov). The data submission system is an improvement from the former systems under the CMS legacy programs, which required clinicians to submit data on multiple websites. Now, eligible clinicians will use the new system to submit their 2017 performance data for the Quality Payment Program during the 2017 submission period which runs from January 2, 2018 to March 31, 2018, except for groups using the CMS Web Interface whose submission period is January 22, 2018 to March 16, 2018.

“The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) requires CMS to implement the Quality Payment Program, and we are committed to doing so in the least burdensome way possible,” said Seema Verma, Administrator of CMS. “The new data submission system makes it easier for clinicians to meet MACRA’s reporting requirements and spend more time treating patients instead of filing paperwork.”

Eligible clinicians will be required to log into the system. After logging in, the system will connect each eligible clinician to the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) associated with their National Provider Identifier (NPI). Eligible clinicians will report data either as an individual or a group.

There are multiple data submission options, including Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QCDRs), qualified registries, attestation, or the CMS Web Interface. Eligible clinicians can also submit data using a Health IT Vendor, which extracts data from certified EHR technology; however, in the spirit of flexibility and burden reduction, eligible clinicians can generate a non-certified report in either the new Quality Payment Program file format or QRDA III file format and manually upload the file into the submission system.

As data is entered into the system, eligible clinicians will see real-time initial scoring within each of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance categories based on their submissions. This scoring may change if new data is reported or quality measures that have not yet been benchmarked are used. Additionally, the performance category score will not initially take into account the user’s Alternative Payment Model (APM) status, Qualifying APM Participant (QP) status, or other special status that may apply to clinicians.

Eligible clinicians are encouraged to log-in early and often to familiarize themselves with the system. Data can be updated at any time during the submission period. Once the submission period closes on March 31, 2018 (with the exception of the CMS Web Interface, which ends on March 16, 2018), we will calculate your payment adjustment based on your last submission or submission update.

Eligible clinicians who need assistance with the data submission system may contact the Quality Payment Program by email at qpp@cms.hhs.gov or toll free at 1-866-288-8292. Eligible clinicians have until March 31, 2018 to submit data for the 2017 transition year, unless they are part of a group reporting via the CMS Web Interface.

For a fact sheet on the Quality Payment Program data submission system, including more information for clinicians participating in APMs, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Payment-Program/Resource-Library/QPP-2017-Data-Submission-Factsheet.pdf