Published: June 27, 2017

Continuing advancement

A special thank you to our members and their practices for your commitment to Reg-ent in 2016, our inaugural year for the registry. After an initial pilot group of 22 practices committed to Reg-ent in the first half of the year, Reg-ent opened to all members in July, with the majority of members joining Reg-ent during September. Since then, there has been no looking back!


Reg-ent℠ registry completes first year and looks ahead with refinements and new benefits

A special thank you to our members and their practices for your commitment to Reg-ent in 2016, our inaugural year for the registry. After an initial pilot group of 22 practices committed to Reg-ent in the first half of the year, Reg-ent opened to all members in July, with the majority of members joining Reg-ent during September. Since then, there has been no looking back! Reg-ent now has more than 1,800 participating providers from over 300 practices. Reg-ent includes participation from academic medical centers, health systems, large private practices and networks, as well as small- to mid-size private practices—all representing the depth and breadth of otolaryngology care across the United States.

We continue to bring aboard new members and their practices and look forward to having the majority of AAO-HNS members participating in Reg-ent by contributing data in furtherance of the practice of high quality otolaryngology care.

Clinical DataOne hundred twenty physicians from 19 practices had PQRS 2016 reporting successfully done through Reg-ent in 2016. Reg-ent once again secured both Qualified Registry (QR) and Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) status with CMS for 2017.

Measures reporting

The top two measures reported by practices for PQRS in 2016 were:

  • PQRS 130 Documentation of Current Medications in the Medical Record
  • PQRS 226 Preventive Care and Screening: Tobacco Use: Screening and Cessation Interventions

The most reported AAO-HSNF-stewarded measures for PQRS 2016 were:

  • PQRS 334 Adult Sinusitis: More Than One Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan Within 90 Days for Chronic Sinusitis (Overuse)
  • PQRS 333 Adult Sinusitis: Computerized Tomography (CT) for Acute Sinusitis (Overuse)
  • PQRS 331 Adult Sinusitis: Antibiotic Prescribed for Acute Sinusitis (Overuse).

As we have grown the registry and onboarded new physicians and their practices, we have had the opportunity to work with more than 54 different EHR vendors. Reg-ent successfully integrated with most EHR vendors utilized by Reg-ent practices and is able to take most practices through the complete mapping process to full integration. However, some of the EHR vendors upon which the registry must rely for pushing practice data from the cloud have proved problematic for both Reg-ent and the associated practices. Increased wait times for additional work on the part of the practices to upload data or finalize contractual obligations to secure their data, which may include the following: submission of application materials, payment of fees for connectivity or data reports, and managing multiple uploads of data have been experienced. The Reg-ent team has worked with FIGmd to develop a solution for practices that are unable to secure their performance data from their EHR vendor. (See box at end of article.)

Pgrs2016

MIPS 2017 reporting

The Reg-ent registry is now gearing up to meet the needs of practices and physicians for MIPS 2017 reporting. Reg-ent will accommodate all required 2017 MIPS reporting categories including Quality Performance, Advancing Care Information (ACI), and Improvement Activities (IA). Quality Performance measures web upload forms will be available for practices utilizing EHRs unable or unwilling to integrate data into the Reg-ent registry or for those practices still using paper charts.

The new Reg-ent MIPS dashboard features enhancements for 2017 MIPS reporting:

  • ACI and IA modules in addition to the Quality modules:
    • ACI and IA modules are completed via web entry and attestation.
    • Quality performance is calculated through the direct integration of the data or via web upload forms.
  • Web entry forms available for paper-based practices for the Quality Performance and IA categories
  • Manual submission forms for Advanced Care Information (ACI) and Improvement Activities (IA) reporting
  • Multiple mapping refinements and complete review before CMS submission
  • Ability to track and revise practice participants, monitor AAO-HNS membership, and renew contracts
  • Scoring engines for each reporting category

Dashboard

More benefits to come

Reg-ent continues to move forward with development of benefits beyond CMS reporting. Reg-ent will provide the ability for data capture on specific procedures and disease processes within the specialty. The first procedures data initiative will focus on allergy immunotherapy injections to aid in discussions with US Pharmacopeia (USP). Work is also progressing with the American Board of Otolaryngology for developing Maintenance of Certification Part IV (MOC Part IV) capabilities within Reg-ent. [We want to emphasize that we are in the very early stages (the first year) of the registry, and although it will take time, the vision for Reg-ent is to become the central repository of otolaryngology-specific data.]

We look forward to welcoming new participants and to renewing contracts with our current participating providers. Thank you for your continued support of the Reg-ent registry.

For more information on Reg-ent and help with either joining or renewing, please email reg-ent@entnet.org or visit www.reg-ent.org.

Help for securing performance data and reporting to CMS

For practices with EHRs that have hindered the ability to utilize the technology offered through Reg-ent for reporting to CMS, Reg-ent will be making available web upload forms so that these practices may still submit performance measures data for the Quality Performance category for the 2017 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) along with the Advancing Care Information (ACI) and Improvement Activities (IA) via the Reg-ent registry.


More from July 2017 – Vol. 36, No. 6