ACEP & CEDR Making way for New Changes

As the days imperceptibly lengthen and the seemingly interminable cold winter nights are shortening, I am putting the finishing touches on this CEDR newsletter.

I am struck by the headway and headwinds which CEDR is navigating. The transition and progress of value-based programs toward patient-centered, outcome-based quality is a complex course beset with any number of obstacles which challenges human, organizational and technological limits.

That is why I am also very encouraged and excited to introduce the updates and reports from our ACEP contributors in this issue and take the liberty to emphasize the themes and trends of the articles in their own words:

• Dr. Abhi Mehrotra, CEDR Committee Chair focuses a spotlight on how CEDR leadership is engaging with regulatory authorities and Emergency Care Quality Measures Consortium (ECQMC) a new coalition of the EM community and beyond for quality measure development.
  • “While in the early stages of formation, ensuring that the EM community has awareness of the ECQMC as well as feedback from CMS are two important tollgates in development “ (Dr. Mehrotra).

• Dr. Pawan Goyal, Associate Executive Director, Quality stresses the increasing performance bar for MIPS and how ACEP is meeting this challenge and reiterates our Chair’s spotlight on collaboration and negotiation.
  • “Our choice is to either sit on the sidelines and criticize CMS or become their trusted advisor to influence a QPP program roll-out that reshapes our specialty for success. We (ACEP) have decided to take the latter approach.” (Dr. Goyal)
• A new face in this newsletter, Dr. Aisha Terry, incoming ACEP BOD liaison muses in her rhetorical article, “What would a World without CEDR Look Like?”
  • “A world without CEDR would be devoid of robust opportunities for innovative research, augmented intelligence, minimized burnout, and seamless workflow in emergency medicine.CEDR serves as an advocate for the emergency physician and is preparing ACEP and our specialty for the future of health care.” (Dr. Terry)
• Ms. Nalani Tarrant, Quality Collaboratives, Data and Quality Measures Director, updates the progress of E-QUAL initiatives, a new E-QUAL honor roll, and introduces the new CEDR quality measures for 2020.
  • “Emergency Quality Network ended the year with engaging over 1,000 EDs nationwide in the learning collaboratives… and there is still time to enroll into an E-QUAL collaborative for 2020…Stroke wave 1 and opioid wave “ (Nalani Tarrant).
• Bill Malcom, CEDR Program Director, updates operations progress and CEDR participant group reimbursement results for MIPS for 2018 year.
  • “100% of our CEDR customers were in positive MIPS scoring brackets* avoiding the 7% penalty. Out of the 181 groups that reported, 60% received a base bonus in the range of 0.01% - 0.20% and 40% received an exceptional bonus in the range of 0.50% - 1.68%...CEDR continues to provide clinicians and groups with a valuable mechanism to prepare for the ongoing escalation of the minimum MIPS score” (Bill Malcolm).
• Nicholas Genes continues the series “Meet the Measures” with his review and sage advice on a “ Preventive Care and Screening: Screening for High Blood Pressure and Follow-Up Documented”
  • “This is among the most popular measures submitted by EDs and Emergency Physicians to CEDR… there’s a lot of options available to satisfy the measure, but the measure is always satisfied if a pre-hypertensive or hypertensive adult patient in the ED, with no prior documented history of hypertension, receives instructions to see their primary care provider” (Nicholas Genes).

I would like to take the opportunity to issue an open-ended invitation for ACEP members to apply and get involved with the 2020-2021 CEDR committee – Research and Publication, Data Validation, Education, or Marketing and Outreach. You don’t have to be a quality or data expert, but commit to a strong curiosity and interest to become a part of this quality journey in ACEP.