Are You Expected to Participate in Quality Reporting in 2017?
If you have not done so yet, this is the time to educate yourself and take action, because quality reporting is no longer just about a selection of measures that may not be relevant to your practice. Quality reporting is becoming more meaningful than just data uploaded into a registry or transferred from your EHR; it is now your reputation as performance scores are publically reported at medicare.gov/physiciancompare. You will be more accountable for how you practice and communicate with your patients, as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) works to expand public knowledge of these programs and as private payers increasingly engage in value-based contracting, which may rely on participation in pay-for-performance programs.
You may be expected to participate in Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) reporting in 2017, and you may be penalized if you don’t. However, participation may be as nominal as reporting on one measure for one patient. To see if you must report for 2017, visit qpp.cms.gov and enter your National Provider Identifier number. For more information on the AAAAI Quality Clinical Data Registry (QCDR), visit aaaai.org/qcdr. The AAAAI QCDR is the only MIPS reporting option with allergen immunotherapy measures available for reporting and is designed as a practice improvement tool.
What’s Next
In 2018, the AAAAI will again be making a significant advance in quality reporting for the allergy/immunology specialty with the introduction of a new and improved clinical data registry. The new registry, which will be more meaningful and impactful for patient care, will expand functionality from CMS quality reporting to additional tools for quality improvement, patient engagement and research. The AAAAI looks forward to sharing more information very soon.