CMS issues guidance for new telehealth eCQM reporting in 2020 and 2021

The new telehealth-specific electronic clinical quality measures are to be used by eligible professionals and clinicians participating in CMS quality reporting programs such as MIPS and APMs.

By Mike Miliard July 09, 2020

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has put together further detailed guidance for how healthcare providers should be documenting and reporting electronic clinical quality measures for telehealth encounters.

The new telehealth-eligible eCQMs are for any eligible professionals or eligible clinicians participating in CMS quality reporting programs for performance period 2020, including the Merit-based Incentive Payment System and Advanced Alternative Payment Models, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus, Primary Care First, and the Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program for Eligible Professionals, according to CMS.

The eCQM specifications “are final and are not subject to revision for the 2020 performance period,” agency officials said. A full list of the eCQMs eligible – and those not eligible – for telehealth encounters this year can be found here.

“When reviewing this list of eCQMs, please note there may be instances where the quality action cannot be completed during the telehealth encounter by eligible professionals and eligible clinicians,” according to CMS. “Specifically, telehealth-eligible CPT and HCPCS codes may be included in value sets where the required quality action in the numerator cannot be completed via telehealth.”

For that reason, “it is the eligible professionals’ and eligible clinicians’ responsibility to make sure they can meet all other aspects of the quality action within the measure specification, including other quality actions that cannot be completed by telehealth.”