To help CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) achieve their joint goal of ensuring health IT systems can support accurate, reliable, and robust reporting of quality measures, a Request for Information (RFI) has been released to the public for feedback on improving the submission of quality data to CMS quality reporting programs. The RFI entitled Certification Frequency and Requirements for the Reporting of Quality Measures under CMS Programs was released on December 30, 2015.
The RFI provides CMS and ONC with an opportunity to assess policy options that could improve the effectiveness of the certification of health IT and specifically the certification and testing of EHR products used for the reporting of quality measures. They aim to streamline/reduce provider, hospital, and health IT developer burden.
CMS and ONC request feedback on how often to require recertification, the number of clinical quality measures to which a certified Health IT Module should be certified, and ways to improve testing of certified Health IT Module(s). The feedback received will inform CMS and ONC of elements that may need to be considered for certification and testing policies and other policies relating to the use of health IT to report quality measures that may be included in the upcoming rulemaking process for CMS quality programs.
The RFI has a 30-day comment period. Please review the Tips for Submitting Effective Comments for best practices on how to submit.