DATE: October 28, 2003

TO:        COMPdata Core Measurement Contacts

FROM:        Pat Merryweather, Vice President

SUBJECT:    JCAHO and CMS Re-Submissions


CMS UPDATES
As noted in prior communications, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is allowing providers to update their data for 3rd Quarter 2002 through 2nd Quarter 2003 discharges.  Please note that CMS urges any provider that is going public with their data during this time period to correct any data that is problematic.  CMS is not charging providers or vendors to re-submit data and therefore, COMPdata will not charge for re-submissions of data to CMS.

In reviewing our feedback reports from the CMS QNetExchange for our customers in which we are submitting data, we are not having any data errors or problems.  The issues we are dealing with is on a few hospitals that have sent us authorization forms, but CMS or the state QIO did not have the same information.

Any data that is being re-submitted for CMS must be at COMPdata by Tuesday, November 11th to ensure we have adequate time to process and prepare the submission.

JCAHO UPDATES
COMPdata is submitting data for 3rd and 4th Quarters 2002 for all providers to ensure that JCAHO has the most current measurements that are reflected on your feedback reports.

If you are sending in additional or updated data for 3rd and 4th Quarters 2002 - there is no charge as COMPdata will absorb this charge.  If you are sending in additional data or updated data for 1st and 2nd Quarters 2003, there will be a charge per quarter per measurement set based upon the fee that JCAHO is charging COMPdata and all vendors for re-submission of information.  JCAHO is charging $39 per quarter per measurement set per hospital for the re-submission of data.  COMPdata will charge the same fee as JCAHO only  for 1st and 2nd Quarters 2003 re-submissions.  Please note that re-submissions only apply to Acute Myocardial Infarction, Heart Failure, and Pneumonia - there will be no updates for the pregnancy and related measurements.

Any data that is being re-submitted for JCAHO must be at COMPdata by Monday November 3rd as JCAHO information needs to be processed through detailed algorithms and statistics formatted per JCAHO specifications.  The process for preparing statistics for JCAHO takes longer than preparing data to be forwarded to CMS.

After November 15th, COMPdata will send reports to providers for all four quarters so that all providers have the most current set of reports available to them.

SUBMITTING FOR CMS BUT NOT JCAHO
If you decide to submit ONLY for CMS and not JCAHO, please send the COMPdata performance measurement helpline an e-mail at perfmeas@ihastaff.org so we know how to properly handle.  If we do not receive an e-mail on how to handle, COMPdata will assume that all data received before November 3rd are meant to update both CMS and JCAHO measurements.

Additional information on the new CART software, processing dates, and training will be sent in a separate e-mail.