Section 10332 of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Secretary to
make standardized extracts of Medicare claims data under Parts A,
B, and D available to “qualified entities” for the evaluation of
the performance of providers of services and suppliers. The statute
provides the Secretary with discretion to establish criteria to
determine whether an entity is qualified to use claims data to
evaluate the performance of providers of services and suppliers.
After consideration of comments from a wide variety of stakeholders
during the public comment period, CMS established “Medicare
Program; Availability of Medicare Data for Performance Measurement”
(hereinafter called the Final Rule and referred to as the Medicare
Data Sharing Program). It was published in the Federal Register on
December 7, 2011 (42 CFR, Part 401, Subpart G). To implement the
requirements outlined in the legislation, the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) established the Qualified Entity
Certification Program (QECP). The Qualified Entity Certification
Program (QECP) was established to implement the Final Rule. One of
the requirements in the Final Rule is that QEs must reapply for
certification six months prior to the end of their 3-year
certification period to remain in good standing. This form is the
official reapplication that QEs must complete to reapply to the
QECP.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.