CMS EQRS Scoring & Feedback
Reliable quality stars behind the scenes
Measuring dialysis care depends on more than collecting data. It requires turning that information into accurate, timely results that CMS and providers can trust. But the processes behind quality scoring relied on disconnected spreadsheets, Microsoft Access rules, and manual data preparation. Bringing information together took weeks, while complex workflows made validation, updates, and repeatable results harder to manage. CMS needed a more dependable foundation. As a subcontractor to Flexion, Systone helped modernize Scoring & Feedback within the End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Reporting System (EQRS), supporting quality reporting for more than 8,000 dialysis facilities.
What We Built
A clearer path from data to results
We helped replace fragmented, manual workflows with automated pipelines that bring data together, prepare it for scoring, and validate it along the way. Standardizing these steps reduced repeated reconciliation and helped teams move from incoming data to usable results with greater confidence.
Scoring built to evolve
Quality measures change, and the systems behind them need to keep up. We supported modular, version-controlled scoring components that made complex rules easier to maintain, test, and trace. This gave teams a more manageable way to introduce changes while preserving consistency across scoring cycles.
Improvements without interruption
Modernization had to happen while the platform continued supporting CMS and dialysis providers. We helped strengthen automated testing, security scanning, and deployment workflows so the team could deliver updates more frequently with zero-downtime deployments. These practices made ongoing improvement part of everyday operations.
More capacity, better efficiency
A growing volume of healthcare data brings greater demands on infrastructure. We supported improvements to cloud-based processing and operations that helped the platform accommodate additional data while reducing hosting costs.
What We Changed
Working alongside Flexion and the broader delivery team, Systone contributed to measurable improvements in speed, reliability, and efficiency:
Data preparation moved from weeks to days. Quality Incentive Program input preparation fell from 4–6 weeks to 3–5 days.
More datasets were delivered correctly the first time. First-attempt delivery of required datasets increased from 39% to 100%.
Improvements reached production more often. Deployment frequency increased 225% year over year, with zero-downtime deployments.
Cloud costs fell as data grew. AWS costs decreased approximately 11% year over year while the platform accommodated an additional year of data.
Together, these changes gave CMS a more reliable and adaptable scoring process, with less manual preparation and a stronger foundation for dialysis quality reporting.