Update for January 2015: Currently, for the EHR Incentive Program, users can attest to any version of the eCQMs; however, for reporting for both the EHR Incentive Program and other CMS-led quality measurement programs, it is required for users to use the most recent version of the measures for reporting. The requirements for each measure program will be referenced in the respective program rule and guidance. Questions regarding specific programs can be directed to CMS at: The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Information Center EHR Information Center Hours of Operation: 7:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. (Central Time) Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.  1-888-734-6433* (primary number) *(press option 1) or 888-734-6563 (TTY number) For submission issues, password reset, authorization and role management, new accounts: QualityNet Help Desk (secure) E-mail: qnetsupport@hcqis.org Phone: (866) 288-8912 TTY: (877) 715-6222 Fax: (888) 329-7377 In regards to certification: In general, the Cypress upgrades that correspond to a round of quality measure publication should be ready within 30-60 days following the publication date. Certification should be available 30-60 days after that and it is expected that this timeline should be not more than 90 days. However, unforseen technical and funding issues have affected this timeline in the past and ONC cannot necessarily avoid these types of delays when the inciting events are out of their control. Answer from 2014: EHR developers are trying to plan when to work on and release updates corresponding to the new CQM specifications published in April 2014, which leads to several questions for planning: 1. If an EHR developer helps their EH clients use the most recent (April 2014) specifications for FY2014 reporting, will this be accepted by CMS for electronic submission? For attestation? A. April 2014 measure specifications will be accepted starting on or around January 1, 2015. Currently, the December 2012 and April 2013 measure specifications can be used to meet Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program and the EHR Incentive Program requirements for the electronically specified clinical quality measure submissions. The December 2012 and April 2013 measure versions will be accepted to QRDA submission through the QualityNet Secure Portal and/or the CMS Registration and Attestation System. 2. When will Cypress be updated to permit certification on the most recent specifications? (However, we assume that the previously clarified policy of not requiring EHR developers to recertify on specification updates will be maintained.) A. The timeline for Cypress to be updated has not been released yet. More information can be found at the www.projectcypress.org website. There are also FAQs listed that can help provide clarification around when EHR systems need to re-certify on standards. That FAQ page can be found here: http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/42-question-06-13-042 . Please Note: Cypress related responses will be updated as information becomes available. We still require clarification on this issue, especially in light of the following information found in the 2015 IPPS NPRM, pre-pub version, page 1249: "We are proposing that eligible hospitals and CAHs that seek to report CQMs electronically under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program must use the most recent version of the electronic specifications for the CQMs and have CEHRT that is tested and certified to the most recent version of the electronic specifications for the CQMs." We (the vendor community) have been waiting for quite a few weeks for clarification on the certification requirements for the 2014 EH annual measure updates. We have been given conflicting information from different ONC and CMS sources. In addition, the verbiage from the IPPS NPRM seems to be in conflict with several written clarifications, most specifically these 2 ONC FAQs http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/44-question-12-13-044 http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/42-question-06-13-042 Specifically, we need clarification on the following questions regarding the annual measure updates: 1) Must providers begin their measure reporting year with the updated annual measure CQMS implemented in their system? Or can these be implemented sometime before the calculation and submission of the measures? (For both EH and EP) A. For the EH measures, hospitals that are attesting to the requirements of the EHR Incentive Program will be able to utilize the December 2012, April 2013, or April 2014 measure specifications utilizing the CMS Registration and Attestation System for Federal Fiscal Year 2015 data submission. For the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program, QRDA submissions will be accepted using the April 2013 and April 2014 measure specifications for Calendar Year 2015 data reporting. Systems that are certified on older measure versions will need to chart-abstract the data using the chart-abstracted measure specifications. 2) We have been given conflicting information regarding the requirement for certification of the updated measures. (See above). We ask for clarification of whether the EHR software must be re-certified for the new measures? A. Re-certification or updating of certification is not required for systems certified to the 2014 certification standards to meet the April 2014 measure specifications. 3) If certification is required, when will Cypress be available? This also needs to take into account any unintended consequences to vendors who may not have certified their EHR to the 2014 edition yet. If a new version of Cypress using the new annual updated measures is required, this could impact the ability of a vendor to certify their software in time to ensure it is implemented at each provider site in order for the provider to meet MU requirements in CY/FY 2014. A. The timeline for Cypress to be updated has not been released yet. More information can be found at the www.projectcypress.org website. There are also FAQs listed that can help provide clarification around when EHR systems need to re-certify on standards. That FAQ page can be found here: http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/42-question-06-13-042 . Please Note: Cypress related responses will be updated as information becomes available When answering this question, please also address the issue of value sets from April 2014. Should provider organizations use these value sets right away, or should they only be used in conjunction with updates as referred to above? Thank you. A. The measure specifications for each version of the measure provide the appropriate value sets that need to be utilized for accurate reporting of data. As new measure specifications are released and value set changes are made, those changes should only be made to the measure version that they are applicable for.