Measure Description
Rate of cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis following atrial fibrillation ablation. This measure is submitted as four rates stratified by age and gender:
- Submission Age Criteria 1: Females 18-64 years of age
- Submission Age Criteria 2: Males 18-64 years of age
- Submission Age Criteria 3: Females 65 years of age and older
- Submission Age Criteria 4: Males 65 years of age and older
Instructions
This measure is to be submitted a minimum of once per performance period for patients with atrial fibrillation ablation performed during the performance period. This measure may be submitted by Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) eligible clinicians who perform the quality actions described in the measure based on the services provided and the measure-specific denominator coding.
NOTE: Include only patients that have had atrial fibrillation ablation performed by November 30, 2021 for evaluation of cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis occurring within 30 days within the performance period. This will allow the evaluation of cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis complications within the performance period. A minimum of 30 cases is recommended by the measure owner to ensure a volume of data that accurately reflects provider performance; however, this minimum number is not required for purposes of QPP submission.
This measure will be calculated with 5 performance rates:
- Females 18-64 years of age
- Males 18-64 years of age
- Females 65 years of age and older
- Males 65 years of age and older
- Overall percentage of patients with cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis occurring within 30days
MIPS eligible clinicians should continue to submit the measure as specified, with no additional steps needed to account for multiple performance rates.
Measure Submission Type:
Measure data may be submitted by individual MIPS eligible clinicians, groups, or third party intermediaries. The listed denominator criteria are used to identify the intended patient population. The numerator options included in this specification are used to submit the quality actions as allowed by the measure. The quality data codes listed do not need to be submitted by MIPS eligible clinicians, groups, or third party intermediaries that utilize this modality for submissions; however, these codes may be submitted for those third party intermediaries that utilize Medicare Part B claims data. For more information regarding Application Programming Interface (API), please refer to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website.
Denominator
All patients aged 18 years and older with atrial fibrillation ablation performed during the reporting period
Denominator Criteria (Eligible Cases):
SUBMISSION CRITERIA 1: Females 18-64 years old
SUBMISSION CRITERIA 2: Males 18-64 years old
SUBMISSION CRITERIA 3: Females 65 years of age and older
SUBMISSION CRITERIA 4: Males 65 years of age and older
AND
Diagnosis code for atrial fibrillation (ICD-10-CM): I48.0, I48.11, I48.19, I48.20, I48.21, I48.91
AND
Procedure code for atrial fibrillation ablation (ICD-10-PCS): 02583ZZ, 02584ZZ
WITHOUT
Telehealth Modifier: GQ, GT, 95, POS 02
AND/OR
Ablation procedures that have been performed by November 30 of current performance period (CPT): 93656
WITHOUT
Telehealth Modifier: GQ, GT, 95, POS 02
Numerator
The number of patients from the denominator with cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis occurring within 30 days following atrial fibrillation ablation
Numerator Instructions:
INVERSE MEASURE – A lower calculated performance rate for this measure indicates better clinical care or control. The “Performance Not Met” numerator option for this measure is the representation of the better clinical quality or control. Submitting that numerator option will produce a performance rate that trends closer to 0%, as quality increases. For inverse measures a rate of 100% means all of the denominator eligible patients did not receive the appropriate care or were not in proper control.
Numerator Options:
Performance Met: Patients with cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis occurring within 30 days (G9408)
OR
Performance Not Met: Patients without cardiac tamponade and/or pericardiocentesis occurring within 30 days (G9409)
Rationale
Cardiac tamponade is one of the most serious complications of atrial fibrillation ablation that can lead to substantial morbidity due to a significant drop in the cardiac output and blood pressure leading to hypo-perfusion of important organs such as the brain, heart, and kidneys. In many cases, cardiac tamponade has to be treated surgically, and it invariably prolongs hospital stay. If not treated promptly, cardiac tamponade can lead to death. The risk of this dreaded complication has been reported to range from 2 to 6%; however, these rates were observed in tertiary referral centers where the procedure was performed by experienced and skillful operators. Given that the occurrence of cardiac tamponade is largely dependent on the operator’s level of experience and, therefore, is in most cases preventable, higher rates are expected to occur when less experienced operators perform the procedure. These issues prove the need to measure performance in this area.
Clinical Recommendation Statements
In recognition that there is an absence of applicable physician-level performance measures for the profession of cardiac electrophysiology, the Heart Rhythm Society (the international professional society focused on the care of patients with heart rhythm disorders) convened a Performance Measures Development Task Force to consider and develop potential physician-level measures cardiac electrophysiologists. The task force consisted of thought leaders in atrial fibrillation ablation, cardiovascular health policy, performance measures development, clinical outcomes, and population science
The process for consideration of the evidence included review of multi-stakeholder professional society clinical expert consensus statements on the topic, such as the 2012 Heart Rhythm Society/European Heart Rhythm Association/European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation (Calkins et al, 2012), and the relevant literature both referenced within this document and in the knowledge of the members of the task force (Cappato et al, 2005; Hsu et al, 2005; Andrade et al, 2011; Bunch et al, 2005; Cappato et al, 2009; Cappato et al, 2010; Cappato et al, 2011; Fisher et al, 2000; Hsu et al, 2003; Latchamsetty et al, 2011; O’Neill et al, 2008; Tsang et al, 2002).
The expert consensus statement does not provide a specific recommendation related to this proposed outcome measure, but rather summarizes that in high-volume and high-quality programs, the incidence of complications in general should be comparable to the low rates of complications observed in published studies, including the world- wide survey of atrial fibrillation ablation (Cappato et al, 2005; Cappato et al, 2009; Cappato et al, 2010; Cappato et al, 2011). Collectively, the incidence of this complication has in general ranged from between 1.2 and 2.4% across the literature evaluated (Cappato et al, 2005; Hsu et al, 2005; Calkins et al, 2012; Andrade et al, 2011; Bunch et al, 2005; Cappato et al, 2009; Cappato et al, 2010; Cappato et al, 2011; Fisher et al, 2000; Hsu et al, 2003; Latchamsetty et al, 2011; O’Neill et al, 2008; Tsang et al, 2002)