General Questions

Why is AUA making this change?

Since its launch in 2014, the American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. (“AUA”) AQUA Registry has become a definitive resource for informing and advancing urology within the United States. In order to truly fulfill the original vision of the AQUA Registry, and ensure its long-term sustainability, the AUA needed to expand its partnerships.

AUA’s alliance with Verana Health is a paradigm-shifting collaboration for the AQUA Registry and will help enhance the quality of the registry data, expand benefits to registry participants, grow the registry to cover all urology subspecialty areas and, over time, implement a patient reportable outcomes component.

What/Who is Verana Health?

Verana Health is a digital health technology company committed to delivering quality insights from real-world data. Verana Health is entrusted by key medical societies to manage clinical data registries and apply advanced analytics to accelerate medical innovations that promote quality of care and quality of life. For more information, visit www.veranahealth.com/about-verana-health OR www.auanet.org/research-and-data/aua-quality-(aqua)-registry/verana-collaboration-faqs

Will this change or increase the costs that we pay to participate in the AQUA Registry?

No. All subscriber benefits, including federal government quality reporting capabilities and performance benchmarking, as well as Practice Assessment Protocol credit for the American Board of Urology’s Lifelong Learning Program (formerly MOC) – will remain the same for 2025.

What is the timeline for the transition?

FIGmd/MRO will continue to support practices through 2024 MIPS submissions (i.e., end of March 2025). Verana Health will support 2025 MIPS submissions. Verana will start to reach out to AQUA practices over the next few months in order to prepare for the release of the new Verana dashboards in 2025.

Who do I reach out to if I have questions?

Please contact the AQUA Registry team, at AQUA@auanet.org,

EHR Integration Questions

What EHR systems is Verana Health able to integrate with?

The AQUA Registry has 41 active EHRs participating in the registry. Verana Health will be supporting and working toward onboarding all of the current AQUA Registry active EHRs. Please contact AQUA@auanet.org to discuss if your EHR will be supported.

Will this impact how our data is integrated into the AQUA Registry?

This depends on your EHR system and how it is hosted. If you use a cloud-based or third party–hosted EHR system, integration may be a hands-off process for your practice depending on your vendor. You may need to submit a help desk ticket to your EHR vendor to initiate the process. If you use a practice-hosted EHR system, your practice’s technical staff will need to work with Verana Health directly on the installation. A Practice Engagement Manager (PEM) will walk you through the process.

We are planning to transition to a new EHR system soon.  How do we proceed?

Existing practices will have the opportunity to discuss their account set-up with the AQUA Team.  If any EHR changes are scheduled during the vendor transition period, please contact the AQUA staff to determine next steps for 2025 participation in the Registry. For New Practices that want to participate in the AQUA Registry, there will be an open recruitment process once new practices are being accepted.  At that time, EHR requirements and practice setup will be discussed.

Dashboard Questions

Will our dashboard look different?

Yes, all practices will have a new AQUA Registry Dashboard delivered by Verana Health to track your quality metrics. Demonstration webinars will be scheduled to onboard and orient all participants to the new Verana Health platform.

How long will I have access to my FIGmd/MRO dashboard?

Current AQUA Registry participants will have access to the FIGmd/MRO dashboard through the end of the 2024 submission period. Effective  2025, all Registry participants will be moved to the AQUA dashboard on the Verana Health platform.

Will we receive training in using the new dashboard?

Yes, the AUA staff will work with Verana Health to develop a comprehensive training program on the new dashboard and its features.

MIPS Measurement/Reporting Questions

How will this impact MIPS reporting for the current year (2024)?

This transition will have no impact on your 2024 MIPS reporting. FIGmd/MRO will work with all current AQUA Registry participants to close out 2024 MIPS reporting.

How will this impact MIPS reporting for next year (2025)?

Verana Health will be conducting the 2025 MIPS ingestion and curation of the data (including measure calculation) for participants to submit to CMS.   However, as in the previous years, the practice will be submitting the data results to CMS. 

Will we be able to report on the same measurements with Verana Health?

Yes, AQUA Registry participants will have access to the same measures on the AQUA dashboard.

Will we be able to select from new measures to report with Verana Health?

Participating practices will have access to the same measures on the AQUA  dashboard on the Verana Health platform.

Will Verana Health support both traditional MIPS and MVPs?

Yes, Verana Health will support both traditional MIPS and MVP reporting. AQUA Registry participants will be able to choose whether they want to report for MIPS via the traditional MIPS pathway or via the MVP route.

Will Verana Health calculate measurements the same way that FIGmd/MRO did?

While measure calculations will follow the same specifications and therefore be similar on the whole, there may be some minor differences based on the technology used by Verana Health vs. FIGmd/MRO. Our hope is that moving to Verana Health will improve the accuracy and quality of these measures.

 Other FAQs

Has the AUA sold the AQUA Registry to Verana Health?

No, the AUA has not sold the AQUA Registry. The AUA continues to own and operate the AQUA Registry and will continue to be a key interface with AQUA Registry participants. However,     Verana Health’s Practice Engagement Managers (PEM) will be the primary interface for MIPS-related needs. Subscriber benefits, including benchmarking and federal quality reporting capabilities, will remain unchanged.

Questions about Security

How is the AUA handling privacy and security of data as part of the collaboration?

Protecting the privacy of AUA members and their patients is a core tenet of the AUA’s mission and our number one priority. We remain in full compliance with the privacy and security requirements outlined within the AQUA Registry Participation Agreement, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other applicable statutes and regulations, under federal and state laws. Our commitment to data integrity and to providing secure, effective and sound data governance has not, and will not, change.

What are Verana Health's commitments to data privacy and security?

The duty to be responsible stewards of patient information is one of Verana Health’s core tenets. Data privacy and security are at the forefront of everything we do. Verana Health holds a HITRUST CSF® Certification for safeguarding Protected Health Information. This certification validates Verana Health’s commitment to meeting key regulations and protecting sensitive information. Verana Health stores all data securely in HIPAA-compliant cloud servers.

How is the data de-identified?

The AUA and Verana Health are jointly committed to protecting patient privacy. As part of this collaboration, the AUA will license deidentified data from the AQUA Registry to Verana Health for use by members and industry partners in an effort to help advance the science of urology, fuel research discoveries and ultimately improve the health care received by patients. To further ensure privacy, de-identified data will also be verified by a third-party statistician as being deidentified and an established firewall will be in place to ensure the data remains protected.

Will third-party companies be able to look at identifiable records or data from the practice?

Securing data privacy is of the utmost importance to the AUA. Established firewalls, as well as third-party verification protocols, will be in place to safeguard patient identifiable information from the registry and prevent it from being used or viewed by third parties. Third parties will not have access to any data that identifies individuals.