In 2016, the ASA Department of Quality and Regulatory Affairs (QRA) responded to more than 750 written inquiries from members and their practices via the QRA email account (qra@asahq.org). Questions ranged from quality reporting requirements and measurement to identifying practice parameters that may assist in local policy development to questions about accreditation standards. For many of these questions, staff responded with additional resources for the practice to consider, especially as they pertained to how certain rules and regulations could impact a practice’s specific structure, workflows and needs.
By far, most of the questions submitted to QRA were related to federal quality data reporting programs and quality measure interpretation. The U.S. federal government publishes proposed and final rules, notifications and announcements in the Federal Register each day. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) often publishes several rules or notifications that affect a wide range of issues and...
