CMS replaces two ED measures with a boarding-and-wait measure required from 2028
CMS's hospital outpatient quality reporting rules for emergency department timing measures. Solid dots have passed; outlined dots are still ahead
Show the numbers as a table
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| November 25, 2025 | CMS adopts the Emergency Care Access & Timeliness measure | CY 2026 outpatient payment final rule: voluntary reporting for 2027, not published; mandatory from the 2028 reporting period. |
| January 1, 2027 | Voluntary reporting of the new measure begins | It counts waits over 1 hour for a room, patients who leave before evaluation, boarding over 4 hours and ED stays over 8 hours. |
| January 1, 2028 | The new measure becomes mandatory | Hospitals in CMS's outpatient quality reporting program stop reporting OP-18b and OP-22 for 2028 and later. The 2028 data are due by May 2029, and CMS publishes the measure from those data. |
About the data
- Source
- CY 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center final rule, 90 FR 53448 (opens in a new tab)Summary of major provisions, Hospital OQR Program; sections XV.B.1 and XV.B.2
- Method
- Dates are the rule's publication date and the first days of the CY 2027 and CY 2028 reporting periods the rule names.
- Published
Free to share and embed with credit to Kent Applied (CC BY 4.0). The source data keeps its own terms.
Facts from this chart
2028
the first reporting year in which hospitals in CMS's outpatient quality reporting program must report its Emergency Care Access & Timeliness measure
Hospitals in CMS's outpatient quality reporting program must report its Emergency Care Access & Timeliness measure from the 2028 reporting period, after a voluntary year in 2027, and CMS removes its median ED time for discharged patients (OP-18b) and left without being seen (OP-22) from the 2028 reporting period.
Source: CY 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center final rule, 90 FR 53448.
KentAppliedOctober 2025
the Care Compare release from which CMS removed its ED boarding measure (ED-2)
CMS removed its ED boarding measure for admitted patients (ED-2) from Care Compare with the October 2025 release, after it retired the measure's data collection.
Source: CMS, Hospital Downloadable Database Data Dictionary, July 2026.
KentApplied
Sources for the figures above: CY 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center final rule, 90 FR 53448 (opens in a new tab); CMS, Hospital Downloadable Database Data Dictionary, July 2026 (opens in a new tab).
Related charts
- From research
California hospitals with longer ED times tended to have more patients leave unseen
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - Hospital (July 2026 release) - From research
Transfers out of California EDs took a median 398 minutes, 111 more than nationally
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release) - From research
California's discharged ED patients: median 174 minutes; 11 states and DC were longer
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - State (July 2026 release); CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - National (July 2026 release) - From research
California hospitals in a volume group: 74 to 413 minutes for patients sent home
CMS Provider Data Catalog, Timely and Effective Care - Hospital (July 2026 release)
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