QRDA I and QRDA III File Generation

QRDA is an HL7 CDA-based XML standard used to submit electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) data to CMS for MIPS reporting. The platform supports two QRDA document types:

• QRDA Category I — One XML file per patient, containing individual clinical data for a specific measure.
• QRDA Category III — One XML file per measure, containing aggregate population-level performance data across all patients.

Read more about the supported measures for the 2025 reporting year here.

1. QRDA Category I File Generation

Overview

QRDA Category I files represent individual patient-level quality data. Each XML file contains one patient's clinical information scoped to a single eCQM, including population membership (e.g., whether the patient is in the denominator, numerator, exclusions, etc.).

2. QRDA Category III File Generation

Overview

QRDA Category III files contain aggregate, population-level performance data for a measure across all patients in the reporting period. Rather than individual clinical records, they report counts and demographic stratifications for each population component (IPOP, DENOM, NUMER, DENEX, DENEXCEP). CMS uses these for MIPS scoring.

3. QRDA File Validation

Overview

Generated QRDA files are validated against the CMS 2025 HL7 specification using the external Cypress QRDA Validation Service operated by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). Validation covers both structural schema conformance and content-level schematron rules.