Now Available: Updated 2023 CMS QRDA III Implementation Guide, Schematron, and Sample Files for Eligible Clinician Programs following the publication of the CY 2023 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released an update to the 2023 CMS Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category III Implementation Guide (IG), Schematron, and Sample Files for Eligible Clinician Programs based on the CY 2023 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule published on November 18, 2022. The 2023 CMS QRDA III IG outlines requirements for eligible clinicians to report eCQMs for the calendar year 2023 performance period for these programs:

• Quality Payment Program: Traditional Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs), APM Performance Pathway (APP), and MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs)
• Primary Care First (PCF)

Changes to the 2023 CMS QRDA III IG

• Updates to support MVP framework and subgroup reporting
  • New section, 4.4 MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs), added to provide guidance for MVP submissions
  • New CMS program name MIPS_SUBGROUP
  • New section, 4.5 Subgroup Reporting through MVP, added to provide guidance for subgroup submissions
  • Moved from V7 to V8 of the document-level template QRDA Category III Report – CMS with an updated template extension
  • Template updates to support MVPs and subgroup reporting
  • New table for MVP identifiers for the 2023 Performance Period
• Removed conformance statements that disallowed APM Entities to report Promoting Interoperability for MIPS
• Table 15: UUID List for MIPS CY 2023 Performance Period eCQM Specifications Eligible Clinicians updated to reflect final rule changes
• Added Table 16: Improvement Activities Identifiers for the MIPS CY 2023 Performance Period
• Added Table 17: Promoting Interoperability Objectives and Measures Identifiers for the MIPS CY 2023 Performance Period

Changes to the 2023 CMS QRDA III Schematron

• Conformance statements updated and new conformance statements added to support MVPs and subgroup reporting

Changes to the 2023 CMS QRDA III Sample Files

• Aligned with the updated conformance statements
• Updated the APM Entity sample file to include Promoting Interoperability
• Updated to include MVPs and subgroup examples

Additional QRDA-Related Resources:

Find additional QRDA-related resources, current and past implementation guides on the Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center QRDA page. For questions related to this guidance, the QRDA IGs, 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.