Data Submission
Hospitals - Inpatient
Hospitals participating in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) quality improvement initiatives must submit specified data in the prescribed format (see Technical Specifications) to the QIO Clinical Warehouse, the national data repository for private healthcare data. Data must be submitted by the transmission deadlines (PDF-116 KB) established CMS.
Transmission via QualityNet
All data and files—whether submitted by a provider, Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) or third-party data vendor acting on the provider’s behalf—must be transmitted via the secure QualityNet website (My QualityNet). All files and data exchanged via QualityNet are encrypted during transmission and are stored in an encrypted format until they are downloaded to a recipient (see Data Exchange Process, PDF). Transmission via QualityNet is the only CMS-approved method for the electronic exchange of private healthcare data between providers and QIOs.
Vendors
A third-party vendor may submit data on a provider’s behalf if previously authorized by the hospital. Hospitals utilizing a vendor must first complete the online authorization process from My QualityNet.)
Submission details
See the Technical Specifications for XML file layout specifications for data being submitted to the QIO Clinical Warehouse and the Edits Documents for a description of possible edit (error) and measure messages in reports regarding data submitted.
For details regarding data transmission for specific CMS initiatives, see Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA): Improving Care through Information and Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU).