Fairfax, VA, Jan. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) are pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have approved the ImageGuide Registry® as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for 2019. The designation as a QCDR allows the ImageGuide Registry to submit provider data to meet reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for the 2019 reporting year. The ImageGuide Registry has been recognized annually as a QCDR since 2015.
The ImageGuide Registry is the first national registry for non-invasive cardiac imaging and was developed and launched by ASNC in 2015. As a joint collaboration between ASNC and ASE, the ImageGuide Registry supports both nuclear cardiology and echocardiography laboratories under separate modules, ImageGuideNuclear and ImageGuideEcho, which provide the ability to assess performance and develop the tools necessary to improve patient safety and outcomes, practice transformation, and innovation through ongoing data collection and quality improvement.
“The five-time recognition of the ImageGuide Registry as a QCDR is a true outcome measure demonstrating the quality and importance of the ImageGuide data and its impact on the practice of cardiac imaging for ASNC and ASE members,” says Peter L. Tilkemeier, MD, MASNC, Chair of the ImageGuide Registry Oversight Committee.
Likewise, Sherif Nagueh, MD, FASE, Chair of the ImageGuideEcho Registry Committee states, “ASE is pleased to join alongside ASNC in receipt of this designation for the registry platform. We look forward to continuing to uphold this past tradition of excellence while providing maximum benefit to both ASE and ASNC participants within the registry.”
As a QCDR, the ImageGuide Registry allows participating physicians to satisfy reporting requirements for the Quality, Improvement Activities, and Promoting Interoperability categories of MIPS. ASNC and ASE are able to develop measures specifically for nuclear cardiology and echocardiography that capture a greater level of granularity on cardiac imaging than traditional quality measures. Successful participation in MIPS will allow physicians to avoid an automatic negative payment adjustment on all Medicare receivables. For 2019, ASNC and ASE will be offering 18 performance measures to facilitate physician reporting, which include 14 measures applicable to echocardiography and 14 measures applicable to nuclear cardiology. Of these measures, 6 serve as dual-modality measures that allow a physician to report on nuclear cardiology and/or echocardiography within a single measure.
Participants can measure, benchmark, and analyze performance in cardiovascular imaging to achieve quality improvement at the provider and laboratory level, while driving broader adherence to best practices. ASNC and ASE’s partnership enables the ImageGuide Registry to address a wide scope of cardiac imaging through the data collection, reporting, and benchmarking of both nuclear and echocardiography studies in one robust tool.
Participating laboratories will not only be able to satisfy Medicare regulatory requirements, but also potentially those of other third party payers down the line – thereby maximizing reimbursement. Moreover, the registry enables users to demonstrate adherence to appropriate use criteria, an increasingly important mandate of healthcare policy.
For more information on enrollment and 2019 performance measures, visit ImageGuideRegistry.org.
About the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology: For over 25 years, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and its more than 4,300 members have been improving cardiovascular outcomes through image-guided patient management. As the only society dedicated solely to the field of nuclear cardiology, ASNC establishes standards for excellence in cardiovascular imaging through the development of clinical guidelines, professional medical education, advocacy and research development. ASNC provides peer-reviewed original articles through its Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and operates the nation’s first noninvasive cardiac imaging registry, ImageGuide Registry®, to benchmark quality and improve patient care. For more information, visit www.asnc.org.
About ASE: As the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging, the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines. Comprised of over 17,000 physicians, sonographers, nurses, and scientists, ASE is a strong voice providing guidance, expertise, and education to its members. The Society has a commitment to improving the practice of ultrasound and imaging of the heart and cardiovascular system for better patient outcomes. For more information about ASE, visit http://asecho.org/
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