The Episode Quality Improvement Program (EQIP) is a voluntary program that will provide incentive payments to practitioners who improve the quality of care and reduce the cost of care that they provide to Maryland Medicare patients. EQIP was created by the HSCRC and is supported by MedChi and CRISP. 

Source and Additional Information: HSCRC and CRISP.

EQIP is an episode-based payment program for non-hospital physicians designed to: 

• Help the State meet the financial targets of Total Cost of Care (TCOC) Model
• Include more physicians in a value-based payment framework (that is, to have responsibility and share in rewards for reducing Medicare TCOC spending)
• Encourage multi-payer alignment in a value-based payment framework
• Include more episodes than in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center (CMMI) models
• Broaden access to Medicare’s Advanced APM (AAPM) MACRA opportunity

EQIP will provide the State with input on:

• Episodes to include (prioritization), and
• Episode design, recognizing there are annual opportunities for updates and participation.
• Episode of Care Definitions
• The Episodes of Care Definition Summary Descriptions are designed to facilitate understanding of the scope and boundaries of a specific episode.

Prometheus Grouper

• Episodes by Clinical Chapters
  Note: The vast majority of the episodes have not yet been fully defined, reviewed and updated. We welcome participation in Clinical Working Groups to continue the work of reviewing and fully defining each episode.

Patient-Centered Episodes of Care System (PACES)

• Next 100 List
  This is a list of episodes that the PACES team have nearly finalized but looking for clinical experts to validate. 
• After extensive analysis and meetings with specialty stakeholders, the HSCRC will move forward with utilizing Patient-Centered Episodes of Care System (PACES) as the EQIP episode grouper, starting in PY4 (CY2025).  While many PACES episodes are undergoing final clinical review and updates, the system offers much more complete coverage than PROMETHEUS and paves the way for easier, more seamless program expansion in future years. Current EQIP episode categories are well-covered by finalized PACES categories and overall, a high degree of alignment has been found for episodes currently available under EQIP

 PY4 EQIP Enrollment webinar:
Performance Year 4 (CY2025) Enrollment is open July 15 to August 30, 2024.

MedChi is offering support to practitioners who would like to participate in EQIP.  MedChi supports the following specialists who are currently participating:

If you would like to participate in EQIP or you are interested in creating a bundle, please contact osimon@medchi.org.