CMS Final Rule for 2025: Key Updates for ACO Quality Reporting
On November 1, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, ushering in significant updates for Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and quality reporting. This final rule reinforces CMS’s move towards digital quality measures (dQMs) and aims to streamline and enhance the quality reporting experience for healthcare organizations. Here’s a look at the key changes and what they mean for ACOs in 2025 and beyond.
Key Changes in the 2025 CMS Final Rule
1. End of the CMS Web Interface
2024 marks the final year for the CMS Web Interface, a tool long used by ACOs to report quality measures. Starting in 2025, ACOs will need to rely on alternative reporting methods, primarily through digital means, to meet quality requirements. This transition underscores CMS’s commitment to modernizing data collection and reporting processes.
2. Transition to Digital Quality Measures (dQMs)
In line with industry-wide shifts, CMS is focusing on digital quality measures (dQMs) to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and interoperability of quality reporting. By moving toward dQMs, CMS aims to leverage digital data sources and streamline the reporting process, helping providers more effectively track and improve patient outcomes.
3. Alignment with the Universal Foundation of Quality Measures
CMS has aligned its quality reporting framework with the Universal Foundation, a standardized set of quality measures intended to unify reporting standards across programs. This alignment simplifies reporting and reduces administrative burdens, ensuring consistency in how quality is measured and incentivized.
4. Enhanced Incentives for eCQM/MIPS CQM Reporting
To further encourage adoption of digital reporting, CMS has expanded incentives for ACOs that use electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) and MIPS Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs). These incentives will help ACOs optimize their quality scores and financial performance under the Quality Payment Program (QPP). With added rewards for organizations using these reporting options, CMS is actively promoting a shift away from legacy reporting systems and toward fully digital quality tracking.
What These Updates Mean for ACOs in 2025
ACOs will need to adapt their quality reporting practices to comply with these new standards. Transitioning to digital measures and embracing the Universal Foundation framework will be crucial steps in ensuring continued success in value-based care. By aligning quality measures with CMS’s future-oriented approach, ACOs can not only meet compliance standards but also potentially increase shared savings through optimized performance.
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