Earlier this quarter, ONC and CMS requested information on program requirements for certification frequency for reporting quality measures. Lantana Consulting Group supports eMeasure development and has a sharp interest in the success of quality measure reporting programs as a transformative agent for healthcare. Our feedback centered on certification frequency, minimum requirements, and testing recommendations for CQM certification.

Lantana submitted a letter on February 1, 2016 in response to the Request for Information: Certification Frequency and Requirements for the Reporting of Quality Measures under CMS Programs. Originally, the public comment period was between December 31, 2015 and February 1, 2016, but was recently extended until February 16^th. We encourage others to take advantage of this extension.

Our key recommendations for the CMS reporting quality measure programs included:

• Removing the mandate on health IT developers regarding the number of measures used in certification
• Allowing the market to determine the scope of measures that health IT developers test and certify
• Increasing coverage of clinical measures for specialty patient populations
• Allowing adequate time within the measure development cycle to accommodate collaboration, testing, and training

We appreciate the opportunity to provide our perspective, and advance CMS’ efforts within a data-driven healthcare network. We hope to continue to improve the current strategies and approaches to CQM certification.

Greater detail on these comments is available here: <https://dev.lantanagroup.com/resources/policy>.

Comments by other organizations are available on the Federal Register: <http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketBrowser;dct=PS;rpp=100;so=DESC;sb=docId;po=0;D=CMS-2016-0001>.