ONC Releases Draft USCDI+ Quality Data Element List for Comment

ONC recently published the draft USCDI+ Quality data element list for public comment.

Through USCDI+ Quality, ONC seeks to extend the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standard to establish harmonized data elements for various CMS and other quality measurement use cases.

"Once mature, the USCDI+ Quality data element list can inform technical specifications and implementation guidance needed to enable more flexible, modernized, and robust approaches to standardizing and sharing data," ONC officials said in a HealthITBuzz blog post.

ONC is working with CMS to ensure USCDI+ Quality supports CMS' goal to transition from electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) reporting to Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based quality reporting using digital quality measures (dQMs).

The dQM initiative aims to make quality measurement more meaningful for healthcare providers while reducing administrative burden.

Specifically, the draft USCDI+ Quality data element list includes data needed to represent eCQMs used in CMS' Inpatient Quality Reporting program and Quality Payment Program in FHIR. The release also includes a detailed mapping between the draft USCDI+ Quality and these quality measures.

"Ultimately, ONC and CMS plan to use these data elements to inform updates to the clinical quality measurement certification criteria in the ONC Health IT Certification Program and implementation guides that support reporting to CMS programs," ONC officials noted.

"While existing CMS quality reporting programs represent a key anchor for USCDI+ Quality, the USCDI+ Quality Domain reflects a broader effort to support collection and harmonization of quality measure data elements for the extended quality community, including specialty registries, payers, quality improvement organizations, and quality improvement models," they added.

The USCDI+ Quality data element list also reflects data elements from several Health Level Seven International FHIR Implementation Guides (IG) for use cases such as long-term and post-acute care, oncology, and federally qualified health center (FQHC) reporting requirements.

ONC held discussions with organizations in the public and private sectors involved in measure development, measure evaluation, and quality reporting to identify high-priority data elements for the USCDI+ Quality draft data element list.

ONC requests feedback on the draft list by 11:59 PM ET on June 30, 2023.