NACOR Approved as QCDR for 2017 MIPS Reporting

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the Anesthesia Quality Institute National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (AQI-NACOR) as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for the fourth consecutive year on Wednesday, May 31. Physician anesthesiologists participating in a QCDR under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Quality Component for 2017 will have several quality measures to report on, as well as 31 MIPS measures. 

In addition to quality measure reporting, AQI-NACOR will support attestation for MIPS improvement activities in 2017. Practices may report on any combination of MIPS and non-MIPS QCDR measures to meet the required MIPS thresholds of reporting six measures, including at least one outcome or other designated high-priority measure.

Approval as a QCDR allows physician anesthesiologists, qualified anesthesia providers and other clinicians to report on quality measures that reflect their practices. This first version of the 2017 CMS-Approved QCDR qualified posting includes approved QCDR (non-MIPS) measures. The final QCDR qualified posting is scheduled to be published in June and is expected to contain additional QCDR (non-MIPS) measures to be added to the “QCDR Measures Supported” column for reporting. Measure specifications will be posted immediately after publication of the final version. 

In 2016, AQI successfully submitted data on more than 17,000 physician anesthesiologists, qualified anesthesia providers and other clinicians. For 2017, the AQI QCDR will support both individual and group reporting. Individual reporting allows eligible clinicians to customize measures they wish to report according to their own patient population, while group reporting allows flexibility in identifying measures that reflect the care provided across the group.  

For more information, email AQI at [email protected].