The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Tuesday published an update for the 2014 Clinical Quality Measures for hospitals eligible for the meaningful use program. At the same time, CMS also issued corresponding specifications for electronic reporting and access to related data elements and value sets.

CMS was mandated under the HITECH Act to review and publish updates to the clinical quality measure specifications to be used in the EHR Incentive Program.

According to an April 2 press release, CMS has determined that the specifications should be updated more frequently than the rulemaking cycle for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, “in order to ensure that specifications maintain alignment with current clinical guidelines and ensure that the CQM remains relevant and actionable within the clinical care setting.”

In addition, beginning in 2014 the CQM specifications will be used for multiple programs such as the Physician Quality Reporting Program, as a result of efforts to align incentive programs and reduce the burden on providers to report quality measures, according to CMS.

CMS strongly encourages the implementation and use of the updates to the electronic specifications of the CQMs finalized in the Stage 2 rule, because those updates include new codes and logic corrections and clarifications.

However, CMS officials say they will accept all versions of the CQMs for MU, beginning with those finalized in the Dec. 4, 2012, CMS-ONC Interim Final Rule and including all annual updates until the Stage 3 rulemaking and the establishment of a new edition of certification criteria for EHR technology.

[See also: New EHR bill would tweak MU requirements.]