National Pathology Quality Registry Approved to Participate in MIPS for 4th Consecutive Year

ASCP’s National Pathology Quality Registry (NPQR) has been granted Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) status for the fourth consecutive year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). With QCDR status, NPQR offers pathologists a way to meet requirements under CMS’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

The NPQR is an institution-based registry that allows pathologists and entire laboratory teams, as well as quality managers and IT managers, to participate in quality improvement initiatives. With renewed QCDR approval, pathologists can submit for CMS quality reporting.

“We continue to concentrate on the laboratory’s impact on our patients and how the NPQR can highlight our specialty’s patient-focus. Our registry is designed to give pathologists the tools they need to drive meaningful improvement in their practices.” said Ali Brown, MD, FASCP, Chief Officer of Medical Quality for ASCP.

The NPQR, established by ASCP in 2016, offers a variety of meaningful, patient-centric measures, including:

• Monitoring appropriate utilization of laboratory testing
• Improving pre-analytical processes
• Optimizing turnaround time and critical value reporting
• Assessing analytical and diagnostic accuracy

Currently, medical laboratories lack a robust method for sharing best practices and benchmarking performance to drive improvement. Through the NPQR, labs have a tool for quality improvement science and the establishment of best practices.

The NPQR aggregates data from both laboratory medicine and anatomic pathology lab information systems to provide regularly-updated dashboards that drill down to patient-level details. Participants can then create and share reports with frontline staff, departments, practice managers and hospital administrators, allowing pathologists and laboratory professionals to take a leading role in quality management at their institutions.

Meanwhile, CMS is extending the 2020 MIPS Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception Application Deadline for COVID-19 to February 1, 2021. ASCP encourages any of our pathologist members eligible for this exception to apply here.