Program Information

The Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program is a quality measure data reporting program implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for care provided in the Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) setting. The ASCQR Program exists to promote higher quality, more efficient health care for Medicare beneficiaries through data reporting, quality improvement, and measure alignment with other clinical care settings.

ASCs that do not meet reporting requirements may incur a 2.0 percentage point reduction to any payment update provided under the revised ASC payment system for that year. To participate in the program, an ASC submits quality measure data; once an ASC submits any quality measure data under the ASCQR Program, the ASC is considered to be participating in the program. ASCQR Program data is available on the CMS data.cms.gov website.

Summary of Program Requirements

The ASCQR Program has data collection, submission, and reporting requirements. ASCs submit their collected quality measure data via two distinct web-based tools: the Hospital Quality Reporting System (HQR) and the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). Required measures can be found under the ASCQR Measures tab on the QualityNet website.

• Data submission via HQR: ASCs should designate an HQR Security Official (SO), who should submit documentation required for the creation of an HQR account at least four to six weeks prior to any quality measure data submission deadline. First, the SO designee is required to establish credentials via Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP). Then the SO will be able to report HQR measure data via the HQR submission tool and access available data contained in submission reports.
• Data submission via NHSN: ASCs must designate a Facility Administrator (FA) registered with Secure Access Management Services (SAMS) to access the NHSN system. Registration should be started six weeks prior to the data submission deadline. The FA will report the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Healthcare Personnel measure via the NHSN submission tool.

Please verify Data Submission Deadline dates on the QualityNet website.