As many of us are preparing for and completing our 1st quarter Cancer Committee meetings, RQRS and CP3R data will likely be presented for review and discussion.
One particular measure, MAC for Breast, stands out due to the drug category coding change of coding chemotherapy agent Herceptin as Biologic therapy/Immunotherapy. Effective with cases diagnosed 1/1/20113 , patients who receive 1 chemotherapy agent + Herceptin will be coded as Single agent chemotherapy being performed. This will cause non-compliance for the RQRS system. Our staff has queried the RQRS experts, who responded with the following: “These changes and changes to the standard of care are being approved by the National Quality Forum which would allow for multi-adjuvant chemotherapy or chemotherapy + immunotherapy/BRM for ER/PR negative Her-2 positive patients. If approved, we will be updating all relevant measure material and will release these changes with the release of RQRS v.2.Any information on these changes will be communicated to our members. Until that time, these cases will remain non-concordant in the RQRS system. Please make note of these particular cases in the notes section and communicate that the College is working to update the measure”.
Though no timeframe was given, it is reassuring to know they are looking into the ever-changing standard of care and its effects on things such as RQRS and compliance for our cancer programs!