CMS proposes to increase quality-reporting requirements in its 2022 payment system rule released July 19.
The proposed changes address CMS' Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program, a pay-for-reporting quality program that requires ASCs to meet quality-reporting requirements or receive a reduction of two percentage points in their annual fee schedule update.
Here are the four proposed changes to ASC quality reporting:
1. Adopt the COVID-19 Vaccination of Health Care Personnel Measure — beginning with 2022 data collection and calendar year 2024 payment determination.
2. Require previously voluntary data collection for ASC-1, patient burn; ASC-2, patient fall; ASC-3, wrong site, wrong side, wrong patient, wrong procedure and wrong implant; and ASC-4, all-cause hospital transfer/admission — beginning with the CY 2023 reporting period and CY 2025 payment determination and subsequent years for web-based submissions.
3. Require the ASC-11, Cataracts: Improvement in Patient’s Visual Function within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery— beginning with the CY 2023 reporting period and CY 2025 payment determination.
4. Require ASC-15a-e: Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey-Based Measures, which collects information about patient experiences. Voluntary reporting would begin in the CY 2023 reporting period and mandatory reporting would begin with the CY 2024 reporting period with CY 2026 payment determination.
The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association expressed concern about the ASC-11 requirement, which ASCA said requires data that ASCs can't always access.
"We support the return of four key measures of patient care that had been suspended due to high performance but remain concerned about a proposed ophthalmic measure that requires postsurgery data that the ASC does not possess," ASCA CEO Bill Prentice said in a July 19 email.