Excessive Radiation Dose or Inadequate Image Quality for Diagnostic Computed Tomography in Adults eCQM- Measure Clarification

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing clarification regarding the reporting requirements for the Excessive Radiation Dose or Inadequate Image Quality for Diagnostic Computed Tomography in Adults electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) beginning with the Calendar Year 2025 performance period.

Hospitals and clinicians who choose to report this eCQM may use any vendor’s software that meets the necessary requirements to generate the standardized data elements required to calculate the measure, consistent with the measure’s specifications. Hospitals and clinicians are not required to use the Alara Imaging Software for CMS measure compliance. Any software vendor capable of calculating and reporting this eCQM in accordance with the measure’s specifications, including transforming radiology data into a format compatible with eCQM reporting, may report this measure on behalf of hospitals and clinicians. Hospitals and clinicians are not required to demonstrate to CMS that the software they or their vendors use can generate and transform the radiology data into the necessary format. However, nothing would prevent a hospital or clinician seeking assurance about the ability of specific software to perform these tasks from requesting that information from a vendor.

As with all eCQMs, CMS will monitor measure results to ensure that all reported data for the Excessive Radiation Dose or Inadequate Image Quality for Diagnostic Computed Tomography in Adults eCQM are both reliable and valid. This may include analyzing data to identify outliers and common characteristics of outlier submissions.