The National Osteoporosis Foundation and National Bone Health Alliance, in Collaboration with CECity, Inc., Announce Designation as CMS Recognized Osteoporosis Quality Improvement Qualified Clinical Data Registry

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) and National Bone Health Alliance (NBHA) Osteoporosis Quality Improvement Registry (QIR), developed in collaboration with CECity, Inc., as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for the CMS Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) in the 2014 program year officially launched today at www.medconcert.com/FractureQIR.

The registry will allow eligible professionals (healthcare professionals who accept Medicare and have valid a National Provider Identifier) to use the Osteoporosis QIR to advance beyond annual PQRS reporting to continuous performance measurement, benchmarking, population health management (including patient care gap analysis) and practice improvement, while aligning and simplifying reporting for financial and professional incentive programs, including PQRS, Meaningful Use and Maintenance of Certification® (MOC).

The Osteoporosis QIR is the only osteoporosis disease focused QCDR and is designed to measure and report on health care quality and patient outcomes. NOF and NBHA identified a set of 14 measures (6 PQRS and 8 non-PQRS measures) that provide healthcare professionals with a way to satisfy increased reporting requirements for PQRS through meaningful, relevant quality improvement activities related to osteoporosis.

A key advantage of participating in PQRS through the Osteoporosis QIR is that CMS has permitted the use of not only PQRS-approved measures, but also new non-PQRS measures. This provides the opportunity for NOF and NBHA to develop and deploy new performance measures through the Osteoporosis QIR that the profession believes best represent how quality should be measured based on specialty, practice setting, or other criteria. Eligible providers may then use the new measures by participating in the Osteoporosis QIR to compare their performance to their peers; and benchmark their performance against measures that matter to their practice, for purposes of quality improvement, or for value based payment and public reporting.

Additional benefits for eligible professionals participating in the Osteoporosis QIR include:

• avoid costly PQRS penalties through tracking treatment results, quality of care, efficiency and patient satisfaction;
• auto-generated reports for PQRS and  QCDR reporting;
• comparison to benchmarks for diagnosis and treatment;
• practice and outcome comparisons; and
• quality improvement in osteoporosis care.

As a QCDR, the Osteoporosis QIR meets CMS requirements for PQRS and QCDR reporting for the 2014 reporting year.  Use of the Osteoporosis QIR provides a great opportunity for healthcare professionals to meet PQRS reporting requirements to avoid the PQRS penalty in 2016 and potentially be eligible for incentive payments under PQRS and the Physician Value-based Payment Modifier program for reporting year 2014.

For information on registration and fees for the Osteoporosis QIR, visit www.medconcert.com/FractureQIR   or contact Debbie Zeldow, MBA, Senior Director, Clinical Programs, National Bone Health Alliance at [email protected] or 202-721-6363.

About CECity®
CECity is the health care industry's leading cloud-based provider of social enterprise platforms and services that address the "3 Ps" driven by healthcare reform: Pay for Value Reporting, Performance Improvement, and Professional Certification. CECity combines its scalable registry, quality measurement, and analytics platform with education and improvement interventions from world- class partners, to help all stakeholders answer the most important question, "How Do We Improve?" Leading organizations across healthcare, including physician practices, ACOs, health systems, health plans, pharmacies, certifying boards, professional societies and academic medical centers, count on CECity to power their high stake solutions for performance improvement, clinical quality registries, professional development, Maintenance of Certification, medication adherence, care coordination, population health informatics and value-based reporting.

About the National Bone Health Alliance
Established in late 2010, the National Bone Health Alliance is a public-private partnership that brings together the expertise and resources of various partners across a broad spectrum to promote bone health and prevent disease; improve diagnosis and treatment of bone disease; and enhance bone research, surveillance and evaluation. NBHA is a platform that allows all voices in the bone health community to work together around shared priorities and develop projects that can become reality through pooled funding. The 51 members of the Alliance (in addition to liaisons representing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Food and Drug Administration) are working from a shared vision: to improve the overall health and quality of life of all Americans by enhancing their bone health. For more information on NBHA, visit www.nbha.org.

About the National Osteoporosis Foundation
Established in 1984, the National Osteoporosis Foundation is the nation's leading health organization dedicated to preventing osteoporosis and broken bones, promoting strong bones for life and reducing human suffering through programs of awareness, education, advocacy and research. For more information on the National Osteoporosis Foundation, visit www.nof.org.

Contact:
Debbie Zeldow
202.721.6364
[email protected]

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SOURCE National Osteoporosis Foundation