Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/414.1400
Timestamp: 2019-08-25 06:55:04
Document Index: 285342543

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 414', '§ 414', '§ 414', '§ 414', '§ 414', '§ 414']

42 CFR § 414.1400 - Third party intermediaries. | CFR | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
Section 414.1400. Third party intermediaries.
42 CFR § 414.1400 - Third party intermediaries.
§ 414.1400 Third party intermediaries.
(1)MIPS data may be submitted on behalf of a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or virtual group by any of the following third party intermediaries:
(i) A QCDR;
(ii) A qualified registry;
(iii) A health IT vendor; or
(iv) A CMS-approved survey vendor.
(2) QCDRs, qualified registries, and health IT vendors may submit MIPS data for any of the following MIPS performance categories:
(i) Quality, except for data on the CAHPS for MIPS survey;
(ii)Improvement activities; or
(iii) Promoting Interoperability, if the MIPS eligible clinician, group, or virtual group is using CEHRT.
(3)CMS-approved survey vendors may submit data on the CAHPS for MIPS survey for the MIPS quality performance category.
(4) To be approved as a third party intermediary, an entity must agree to meet the applicable requirements of this section, including, but not limited to, the following:
(i) A third party intermediary's principle place of business and retention of any data must be based in the U.S.
(ii) If the data is derived from CEHRT, a QCDR, qualified registry, or health IT vendor must be able to indicate its data source.
(iii) All data must be submitted in the form and manner specified by CMS.
(iv) If the clinician chooses to opt-in in accordance with § 414.1310, the third party intermediary must be able to transmit that decision to CMS.
(5) All data submitted to CMS by a third party intermediary on behalf of a MIPS eligible clinician, group or virtual group must be certified by the third party intermediary as true, accurate, and complete to the best of its knowledge. Such certification must be made in a form and manner and at such time as specified by CMS.
(b)QCDR approval criteria -
(1)QCDR self-nomination. For the 2020 and 2021 MIPS payment years, entities seeking to qualify as a QCDR must self-nominate September 1 until November 1 of the CY preceding the applicable performance period. For the 2022 MIPS payment year and future years, entities seeking to qualify as a QCDR must self-nominate during a 60-day period during the CY preceding the applicable performance period (beginning no earlier than July 1 and ending no later than September 1). Entities seeking to qualify as a QCDR for a performance period must provide all information required by CMS at the time of self-nomination and must provide any additional information requested by CMS during the review process. For the 2021 MIPS payment year and future years, existing QCDRs that are in good standing may attest that certain aspects of their previous year's approved self-nomination have not changed and will be used for the applicable performance period.
(2)Establishment of a QCDR entity.
(i) Beginning with the 2022 MIPS Payment Year, the QCDR must have at least 25 participants by January 1 of the year prior to the applicable performance period.
(ii) If the entity uses an external organization for purposes of data collection, calculation, or transmission, it must have a signed, written agreement with the external organization that specifically details the responsibilities of the entity and the external organization. The written agreement must be effective as of September 1 of the year preceding the applicable performance period.
(3)QCDR measures for the quality performance category.
(i) For purposes of QCDRs submitting data for the MIPS quality performance category, CMS considers the following types of quality measures to be QCDR measures:
(A) Measures that are not included in the MIPS final list of quality measures described in § 414.1330(a)(1) for the applicable MIPS payment year; and
(B) Measures that are included in the MIPS final list of quality measures described in § 414.1330(a)(1) for the applicable MIPS payment year, but have undergone substantive changes, as determined by CMS.
(ii) For the 2020 MIPS payment year and future years, an entity seeking to become a QCDR must submit specifications for each measure, activity, and objective that the entity intends to submit to for MIPS (including the information described in paragraphs (b)(3)(ii)(A) and (B) of this section) at the time of self-nomination. In addition, no later than 15 calendar days following CMS approval of any QCDR measure specifications, the entity must publicly post the measure specifications for each QCDR measure (including the CMS-assigned QCDR measure ID) and provide CMS with a link to where this information is posted.
(A) For QCDR measures, the entity must submit the measure specifications for each QCDR measure, including: Name/title of measures, NQF number (if NQF-endorsed), descriptions of the denominator, numerator, and when applicable, denominator exceptions, denominator exclusions, risk adjustment variables, and risk adjustment algorithms.
(B) For MIPS quality measures, the entity must submit the MIPS measure IDs and specialty-specific measure sets, as applicable.
(iii) A QCDR must include the CMS-assigned QCDR measure ID when submitting data on any QCDR measure to CMS.
(c)Qualified registry approval criteria -
(1)Qualified registry self-nomination. For the 2020 and 2021 MIPS payment years, entities seeking to qualify as a qualified registry must self-nominate from September 1 until November 1 of the CY preceding the applicable performance period. For the 2022 MIPS payment year and future years, entities seeking to qualify as a qualified registry must self-nominate during a 60-day period during the CY preceding the applicable performance period (beginning no earlier than July 1 and ending no later than September 1). Entities seeking to qualify as a qualified registry for a performance period must provide all information required by CMS at the time of self-nomination and must provide any additional information requested by CMS during the review process. For the 2021 MIPS payment year and future years, existing qualified registries that are in good standing may attest that certain aspects of their previous year's approved self-nomination have not changed and will be used for the applicable performance period.
(2)Establishment of a qualified registry entity. Beginning with the 2022 MIPS Payment Year, the qualified registry must have at least 25 participants by January 1 of the year prior to the applicable performance period.
(d)Health IT vendor approval criteria.Health IT vendors must meet the criteria specified at paragraph (a)(4) of this section.
(e)CMS-approved survey vendor approval criteria. Entities seeking to be a CMS-approved survey vendor for any MIPS performance period must submit a survey vendor application to CMS in a form and manner specified by CMS for each MIPS performance period for which it wishes to transmit such data. The application and any supplemental information requested by CMS must be submitted by deadlines specified by CMS. For an entity to be a CMS-approved survey vendor, it must meet the following criteria:
(1) The entity must have sufficient experience, capability, and capacity to accurately report CAHPS data, including:
(i) At least 3 years of experience administering mixed-mode surveys (that is, surveys that employ multiple modes to collect date), including mail survey administration followed by survey administration via Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI);
(ii) At least 3 years of experience administering surveys to a Medicare population;
(iii) At least 3 years of experience administering CAHPS surveys within the past 5 years;
(iv) Experience administering surveys in English and at least one other language for which a translation of the CAHPS for MIPS survey is available;
(v) Use equipment, software, computer programs, systems, and facilities that can verify addresses and phone numbers of sampled beneficiaries, monitor interviewers, collect data via CATI, electronically administer the survey and schedule call-backs to beneficiaries at varying times of the day and week, track fielded surveys, assign final disposition codes to reflect the outcome of data collection of each sampled case, and track cases from mail surveys through telephone follow-up activities; and
(vi) Employment of a program manager, information systems specialist, call center supervisor and mail center supervisor to administer the survey.
(2) The entity has certified that it has the ability to maintain and transmit quality data in a manner that preserves the security and integrity of the data.
(3) The entity has successfully completed, and has required its subcontractors to successfully complete, vendor training(s) administered by CMS or its contractors.
(4) The entity has submitted a quality assurance plan and other materials relevant to survey administration, as determined by CMS, including cover letters, questionnaires and telephone scripts.
(5) The entity has agreed to participate and cooperate, and has required its subcontractors to participate and cooperate, in all oversight activities related to survey administration conducted by CMS or its contractors.
(6) The entity has sent an interim survey data file to CMS that establishes the entity's ability to accurately report CAHPS data.
(f)Remedial action and termination of third party intermediaries.
(1) If CMS determines that a third party intermediary has ceased to meet one or more of the applicable criteria for approval, or has submitted data that is inaccurate, unusable, or otherwise compromised, CMS may take one or more of the following remedial actions after providing written notice to the third party intermediary:
(i) Require the third party intermediary to submit a corrective action plan (CAP) to CMS to address the identified deficiencies or data issue, including the actions it will take to prevent the deficiencies or data issues from recurring. The CAP must be submitted to CMS by a date specified by CMS.
(ii) Publicly disclose the entity's data error rate on the CMS website until the data error rate falls below 3 percent.
(2)CMS may immediately or with advance notice terminate the ability of a third party intermediary to submit MIPS data on behalf of a MIPS eligible clinician, group, or virtual group for one or more of the following reasons:
(i)CMS has grounds to impose remedial action;
(ii)CMS has not received a CAP within the specified time period or the CAP is not accepted by CMS; or
(iii) The third party intermediary fails to correct the deficiencies or data errors by the date specified by CMS.
(3) For purposes of paragraph (f) of this section, CMS may determine that submitted data is inaccurate, unusable, or otherwise compromised if the submitted data:
(i) Includes, without limitation, TIN/NPI mismatches, formatting issues, calculation errors, or data audit discrepancies; and
(ii) Affects more than 3 percent of the total number of MIPS eligible clinicians or group for which data was submitted by the third party intermediary.
(g)Auditing of entities submitting MIPS data. Any third party intermediary must comply with the following procedures as a condition of its qualification and approval to participate in MIPS as a third party intermediary.
(1) The entity must make available to CMS the contact information of each MIPS eligible clinician or group on behalf of whom it submits data. The contact information must include, at a minimum, the MIPS eligible clinician or group's practice phone number, address, and, if available, email.
(2) The entity must retain all data submitted to CMS for purposes of MIPS for 6 years from the end of the MIPS performance period.
(3) For the purposes of auditing, CMS may request any records or data retained for the purposes of MIPS for up to 6 years from the end of the MIPS performance period.
[83 FR 60088, Nov. 23, 2018]