Several deadlines for the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program are fast approaching, and with new measures being implemented and ICD-10 coming, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made several updates to the program and its documentation.
Deadlines You Don’t Want to Miss
- Claims submission of measures ASC-1-ASC-5 is ongoing, and the current reporting period of January-December 2015 will be used to determine 2017 payment adjustments.
- Submission of web-based measures ASC-6, ASC-7, ASC-9, and ASC-10 must be completed by August 15, 2015, for the 2014 reporting year in order to avoid a payment adjustment in 2016. (Note that the reporting period for measures ASC-9 and ASC-10 covers only April-December 2014, while ASC-6 and ASC-7 covers all of 2014.)
- As well, submission of web-based measure ASC-8: Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) must be completed by August 15, 2015, for the 2014/2015 flu season (October 1, 2014, through March 31, 2015) in order to avoid a payment adjustment in 2016. The submission process is outlined at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, and they provide a helpful enrollment checklist also. To submit your data, you will need your facility’s CMS Certification Number (CCN) which is a 10-digit alphanumeric code with a “C” in the third position. If you do not know your facility’s CCN, use the Look-Up Tool found here.
- A dry run of new measure ASC-12: Facility Seven-Day Risk Standardized Hospital Visit Rate after Outpatient Colonoscopy will take place July 1, 2015, through July 31, 2015. CMS will provide facilities with Facility-Specific Reports (FSRs) for the measure via the QualityNet Secure Portal during that time. The primary goals of the dry run are to educate facilities about the measure in advance of its use in the ASCQR program, provide an opportunity for facilities to carefully review their measure results and data used for measure calculation and to submit questions and comments via email and during national provider calls, and provide an opportunity for CMS to test the data production process prior to measure use in the ASCQR program. More information about the dry run is available on the QualityNet website.
Updates to the Program
- Remember, submission of measure ASC-11: Cataracts: Improvement in Patient’s Visual Function within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery is now voluntary and will not affect any payments.
- An updated list of surgical procedure codes is available for web-based measure ASC-7: ASC Facility Volume Data on Selected ASC Surgical Procedures in the ASCQR Specifications Manual version 4.0a for submission January 1, 2015, thru August 15, 2015 for CY 2014 encounters.
- The ASCQR Specifications Manual version 4.1 has been updated to reflect ICD-10 diagnosis codes, as well as providing clarifications to web-based measures ASC-9: Endoscopy/Polyp Surveillance: Appropriate Follow-up Interval for Normal Colonoscopy in Average Risk Patients and ASC-10: Endoscopy/Polyp Surveillance: Colonoscopy Interval for Patients with a History of Adenomatous Polyps – Avoidance of Inappropriate Use.
Time Is Running Out
With many deadlines approaching which require time-intensive registrations with two online portals, ASCs that have not completed one or both of the below processes should have received a letter via FedEx last week from CMS:
- NHSN enrollment
- QualityNet Security Administrator (SA) registration
CMS estimates that 38 percent of ASCs have not completed enrollment in the NHSN and 52 percent may be without an active QualityNet Security Administrator as evidenced by the absence of complete CMS web-based data submission.
How Are You Doing?
Interested in knowing how you are doing so far with the ASCQR program? Your preliminary “ASC Report 2015” has been uploaded to the QualityNet Secure Portal found at www.qualitynet.org. Only those ASCs that have an active QualityNet SA will be able to access this facility-specific report. The report provides an overview of your facility’s Quality Data Code compliance through Q1 2015 and the status of your web-based measures data submission based on the most current data. In addition to facility-level data, state and national level data are also provided. Data for ASC-8 submitted via the NHSN are not available at this time.
Access your report via the QualityNet Secure Portal using these steps:
- Select “Secure File Transfer” in the blue ribbon at the top of the screen
- Select “AutoRoute_Inbox” in the left-side menu
- Select the “ASC Report 2015” report, also identified with your facility’s NPI
- Select “Download”
- Select “Save” in the pop-up box
- Save and open the report
Need more information? Visit the QualityNet ASCQR Program Overview webpage.
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