CMS Includes Accredited CME as an Improvement Activity in the Quality Payment Program Proposal

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has included accredited CME as an improvement activity in the proposed changes for the Quality Payment Program. The proposed rule would make changes in 2018, the second year of the Quality Payment Program, as required by the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).

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In the proposed rule, CMS describes the following criteria for completion of an accredited performance improvement continuing medical education program that addresses performance or quality improvement:

• The activity must address a quality or safety gap that is supported by a needs assessment or problem analysis, or must support the completion of such a needs assessment as part of the activity;
• The activity must have specific, measurable aim(s) for improvement;
• The activity must include interventions intended to result in improvement;
• The activity must include data collection and analysis of performance data to assess the impact of the interventions; and
• The accredited program must define meaningful clinician participation in their activity, describe the mechanism for identifying clinicians who meet the requirements, and provide participant completion information.

CMS is accepting comments on the proposal until August 21, 2017. Download the Federal Register notice here. (You can find the section on CME in Table F: Proposed New Improvement Activities for the Quality Payment Program Year 2 and Future Years, page 30,479.)

Read more on the ACCME website.