Meaningful Use – Stage 2 (Part 2 of 2)

Clinical Quality Measures may be reported electronically through the EHR if this function is available through your EHR software. It can also be done through CMS’s Physician Quality Reporting System Portal. In order for a practice to report through the portal, the practice needs to sign up through CMS, which can be done through the CMS website. In addition, reporting can be done through a number of group reporting options if a practice is part of a large group of practices or an ACO, or via attestation as before. While the details go of how to report go beyond what we can cover in this column, your IT support person or consultant should be well acquainted with the process.

[RW] 2014 CMS adult recommended core measures

The Clinical Quality Measures are divided into six different domains of care, and providers must report on Clinical Quality Measures from at least three different domains (Table 1).

CMS encourages reporting on nine recommended core sets of Clinical Quality Measures, as long as those measures are relevant to a practitioner’s patient population. The recommended core measures focus on aspects of medical care that are felt to have the most significant effect on morbidity and mortality of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

They also focus on aspects of medical care that are consistent with national public health priorities or that particularly increase healthcare costs. The nine measures recommended by CMS for adult and pediatric populations are listed in Tables 2 and 3.

[RW] 2014 pediatric recommended core measures

Between Core Objectives, Menu Objectives, and CQMs, the requirements for Stage 2 meaningful use have gotten more complicated and perhaps more confusing to track and implement than before. We recommend that every practice has an identified individual who will become a resource to help others both understand and implement Stage 2 meaningful use. We anticipate a range of opinion about the challenges of Stage 2 and are interested in your thoughts. Please email us, and we will try to publish some of the comments in upcoming columns.