ARRA HITECH EP Clinical Quality Measures TO under the MIDS IDIQ

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, Title XIII of Division A and Title IV of Division B of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (Pub. L. 111-5) was enacted on February 17, 2009 to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health information technology (HIT) and electronic health information exchange. The HITECH Act also amended several sections of the Social Security Act and in doing so established the availability of incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals to promote the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Title IV, Division B of the HITECH Act establishes incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs for certain professionals and hospitals that meaningfully use Certified EHR Technology. CMS is charged with implementing the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program and developing a portfolio of clinical quality measures that can be reported by Eligible Professionals (EPs) directly from their EHRs to CMS and the States.

The CMS EHR Incentive Program includes three stages for meaningful use of certified EHRs. Stage 1 meaningful use criteria focus on electronically capturing health information in a coded format, using that information to track key clinical conditions, communicating that information for care coordination purposes, and initiating the reporting of clinical quality measures and public health information.

The CMS EHR Incentive Program includes 44 clinical quality measures for reporting by Eligible Professionals (EPs) for program years 2011 and 2012. CMS has approximately 40 additional measures that were electronically specified to be used in EHRs. The clinical quality measures developed specifically for use in EHRs or existing measures electronically specified under this Task Order will be added to the current EHR measure portfolio for potential inclusion in the CMS EHR Incentive Program beginning 2013. The final rule for the CMS EHR Incentive Program for 2013 and beyond is anticipated to be published June 2012 and will include the measures to be reported in future program years to CMS and the States.

Health care provider adoption and use of EHRs creates new opportunities to improve the quality of care for Americans by utilizing this rich source of clinical information. Electronic capture and real-time access to clinical patient data will promote the communication of care between health care providers to ensure care coordination and also provide patients with the information they need to actively participate in their own care. To this end, CMS is developing a portfolio of clinical quality measures that capitalize on the clinical data documented in EHRs for use in the CMS EHR Incentive Program.

The purpose of the ARRA HITECH EP Clinical Quality Measures Task Order under the Measure & Instrument Development and Support (MIDS) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Umbrella Statement of Work (USOW) is to develop, electronically specify and maintain clinical quality measures that will be used for reporting by EPs using certified EHR systems. The clinical quality measures electronically specified or developed de novo (new measures using the EHR as the data source) have multiple end users, of those are two primary end users: Health Information Technology (HIT) vendors/programmers and health care providers.