IA_PSPA_32Patient Safety and Practice Assessment

Use of CDC Guideline for Clinical Decision Support to Prescribe Opioids for Chronic Pain via Clinical Decision Support

2026 MIPS Improvement Activities

At a glance
Activity ID
IA_PSPA_32
Subcategory
Patient Safety and Practice Assessment
Category
Improvement Activities

Objective

Make Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain via clinical decision support (CDS) part of eligible clinicians' workflow, thus improving prescription practices, protecting patients at risk for addition and/or overdose, and helping to address the opioid epidemic.

Activity description

In order to receive credit for this activity, MIPS eligible clinicians must utilize the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain via clinical decision support (CDS). For CDS to be most effective, it needs to be built directly into the clinician workflow and support decision making on a specific patient at the point of care. Specific examples of how the guideline could be incorporated into a CDS workflow include, but are not limited to: electronic health record (EHR)-based prescribing prompts, order sets that require review of guidelines before prescriptions can be entered, and prompts requiring review of guidelines before a subsequent action can be taken in the record.

Suggested documentation

Evidence of eligible clinicians utilizing the CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain via CDS. Include all of the following elements:

1) CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain via CDS within eligible clinicians’ workflow – Evidence that the CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain is available to eligible clinician(s) via CDS, and that the guideline is incorporated into eligible clinicians’ workflow. May include: electronic health record-based prescribing prompts, chronic pain order sets with opiate prescribing based on CDC Guidelines, or prompts requiring review of guidelines before a subsequent action can be taken in the record; AND

2) Use of Guideline in CDS – Documentation of use of CDC guideline during patient care during the 90 day or year-long attestation period.

Improvement Activity details reference the CMS Quality Payment Program and change each performance year. Confirm requirements against the official CMS pages before attesting.