Oct 20, 2021
CMS is planning to make changes to iQIES in an attempt to simplify the way Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI) records are reported in the system. The goal for these changes is to allow for an IRF subunit of a Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), Acute Care Hospital, or Critical Access Hospital (CAH) to be able to access reports containing patient, assessment, submission, or quality measure data for their subunit(s).
The system update for these changes is planned for Friday, November 19, 2021, beginning at 8:00 p.m. (ET). This date corresponds with the 30-day window allowed for IRFs to review their Provider Preview Reports for the December 2021 public reporting refresh, and it also falls after the November 15, 2021 data submission deadline for submission of Quarter 2, 2021 IRF-PAI assessment data.
The system update will be accompanied by system downtime. The downtime will preclude any assessment submissions across all current iQIES care settings (IRF, LTCH, and Home Health Agency [HHA]). System reports will also be unavailable during this time period. The downtime is expected to last no more than three hours. More information regarding the downtime specifics will be forthcoming.
No action by users required at this time. This is just an advanced notice making users aware of the upcoming changes; additional communications will be released detailing exactly what impacted users will need to do as part of this system change.
If users have any immediate questions regarding this information, contact the QIES/iQIES Service Center by phone: 1-800-339-9313 or email: iqies@cms.hhs.gov.