A qualified entity must meet the following operating and governance requirements:

(a) Submit to CMS a list of all measures it intends to calculate and report, the geographic areas it intends to serve, and the methods of creating and disseminating reports. This list must include the following information, as applicable and appropriate to the proposed use:

(1) Name of the measure, and whether it is a standard or alternative measure.

(2) Name of the measure developer/owner.

(3) If it is an alternative measure, measure specifications, including numerator and denominator.

(4) The rationale for selecting each measure, including the relationship to existing measurement efforts and the relevancy to the population in the geographic area(s) the entity would serve, including the following:

(i) A specific description of the geographic area or areas it intends to serve.

(ii) A specific description of how each measure evaluates providers and suppliers on quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and/or resource use.

(5) A description of the methodologies it intends to use in creating reports with respect to all of the following topics:

(i) Attribution of beneficiaries to providers and/or suppliers.

(ii) Benchmarking performance data, including the following:

(A) Methods for creating peer groups.

(B) Justification of any minimum sample size determinations made.

(C) Methods for handling statistical outliers.

(iii) Risk adjustment, where appropriate.

(iv) Payment standardization, where appropriate.

(b) Submit to CMS a description of the process it would establish to allow providers and suppliers to view reports confidentially, request data, and ask for the correction of errors before the reports are made public.

(c) Submit to CMS a prototype report and a description of its plans for making the reports available to the public.

(d) Submit to CMS information about the claims data it possesses from other sources, as defined at §401.703(h), and documentation of adequate rights to use the other claims data for the purposes of this subpart.

(e) If requesting a 5 percent national sample to calculate benchmarks for the specific measures it is using, submit to CMS a justification for needing the file to calculate benchmarks.