This year, RISE also introduced one new measure, ACR17, for adult rheumatoid arthritis patients who are receiving their first course of therapy with a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug.
Using RISE: One Provider’s Point of View
Nandini Setia, MD, with Articularis Rheumatologist Specialists in Atlanta, shared the benefits and occasional challenges her practice has had using RISE. Her physician-owned practice has locations in multiple states and uses three different electronic medical records (EMRs). The practice reports QPP data for MIPS, MVPs and also via APMs as part of an ACO. These are done through RISE. Why do practice leaders report all three? “There’s a method to this madness,” she said.
First, RISE data is captured by all of their EMRs, which standardizes the data practice-to-practice, so there’s not a significant amount of extra time involved. Reporting data through these different areas helps the practice ensure alignment with quality of care standards, and helps its business partners see its value. Tracking data through the different pathways can help practice leaders and payers identify the pathway with the strongest results.
Practice leaders chose four RISE-specific metrics to adopt:
- a gout serum urate target less than 6.0 mg/ml;
- disease activity measurement for patients with psoriatic arthritis;
- safe hydroxychloroquine dosing (less than or equal to 5 mg/kg); and
- hepatitis B safety screening.
A review of their data in August led to some interesting insights, Dr. Setia said. First, the practice was not recording some of the processes they thought they were recording, such as RAPID3s. Recording that was part of their legacy EMRs, and practice leaders had to retrain medical assistants on how to record that information with new software.
Next, they also realized certain practices were doing well with some measures and could train other practices on how to raise their scores in those areas. “That stopped us from reinventing the wheel,” she said.
Practice leaders also realized the way each rheumatologist documents patient data is different, a realization she hopes will lead to future streamlining.
Going through the reporting process helped practice leaders emphasize quality as a process and signals to staff and patients that they are driven to quality care, Dr. Setia said. Future challenges include how to embed data collection into workflows as much as possible, helping medical assistants decide when certain things (like RAPID3s) can be skipped, and being mindful of the extra burden on staff.
