Now Available: 2026 CMS QRDA III Implementation Guide (IG), Schematron, and Sample Files for Eligible Clinicians

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the 2026 CMS Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category III Implementation Guide (IG), Schematron, and Sample Files for Eligible Clinician programs.

The updated 2026 CMS QRDA III IG outlines requirements for Eligible Clinicians (ECs) to report electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) for the Calendar Year (CY) 2026 EC quality reporting programs.

Changes to the 2026 CMS QRDA III IG include:

• Removal of the Primary Care First (PCF) submission guidance, PCF program name code, and relevant conformance statements
• Removal of the Making Care Primary (MCP) submission guidance, MCP program name codes, and relevant conformance statements
• Updated SSP_PI submission guidance and removal of conformance statements for participant is SSP PI, which was used to indicate that Promoting Interoperability data included will be used for the SSP PI reporting. 
• Updated several templates, including a new version of the QRDA Category III Report – CMS template and a new Sex Supplemental Data Element – CMS template to use the Federal Administrative Sex value set.
• Updated language for CMS EHR Certification ID 
• Updated the eCQM UUIDs for MIPS CY 2026 Performance Period

Changes to the 2026 CMS QRDA III Schematron file include:

• Updated assertion rules to reflect the templates and conformance statements changes
• Removed the PCF, MCP_STANDARD, and MCP_FQHC program name codes from the voc.xml file

Changes to the 2026 CMS QRDA III Sample files include:

• Removed the sample files for PCF and MCP
• Updated the sample files to conform to the 2026 CMS QRDA III IG

Additional QRDA-Related Resources: 

To find out more about QRDA and eCQMs, visit the Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center.

For questions related to the QRDA Implementation Guides and/or Schematrons, visit the ONC Project Tracking System (Jira) QRDA project.

See the QRDA Known Issues Dashboard for solutions under development for both QRDA I and III known technical issues. These known issues supplement the information in QRDA IGs and other supporting documents.