SoftDev solidifies its placement as the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Program data quality expert with a second HUBZone sole source award for the CMS CROWN Data Discrepancy Support (CDDS) contract. As CDDS moves into a new phase under the Centers for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) Information Services Group (ISG) in this third iteration, SoftDev is excited for new opportunities to streamline efforts and identify areas for innovation to better serve CMS and the ESRD community across our nation. “When writing the original white paper that spurred the creation of CDDS, we knew that this project would bring value to the ESRD Program. Reflecting over the past eight years and the work we have done to date, we are proud to know that we were right. Now, with this third iteration, we are more motivated than ever before to continue to serve and focus on reducing provider burden while, ultimately, ensuring ESRD patients’ access to care. With ISG’s guidance, we expect to achieve more great things under CDDS,” stated Robin Kaiser, President at SoftDev.

CDDS supports the ESRD user community which submits data electronically to CMS CROWNWeb. CDDS supports the ESRD Network contractors, dialysis providers nationwide, the QualityNet Help Desk contractor, and the National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA) Health Information Exchange (HIE) by performing case work to resolve and close Tier 3 help desk tickets that require specialized assistance to correct discrepancies in CROWNWeb data submissions. CDDS is responsible for ESRD data governance, data quality, data validity and reliability, and measurement and analysis reporting for the Quality Incentive Program and the Dialysis Facility Compare public reporting website. ESRD Patient populations are increasing by 5% and the number of dialysis providers increase by almost 7% annually, which impacts the burden of data submissions for dialysis providers to increase proportionally. CMS’ annual implementation of additional clinical quality measures has the potential to increase the volume of ESRD patient, clinical and facility data exponentially, making CDDS a project with critical importance within CCSQ.