The rapid expansion of virtual care has transformed access and delivery across healthcare, but it’s also introduced a new set of challenges for how performance is measured, reported, and benchmarked.

As provider organizations adapt to hybrid and virtual-first care models, the expectations around quality reporting are shifting in parallel. Longstanding frameworks built around episodic, in-person encounters must now evolve to capture the continuity, variability, and complexity of digitally distributed care.

For groups participating in MIPS, ACO MSSP, or advanced APMs, this shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity: to align clinical performance with a new generation of reporting standards rooted in digital engagement, real-time data capture, and structured submission pathways.

Virtual Care and the Breakdown of Traditional Reporting Models Legacy quality reporting systems were designed for in-person care workflows. Measures were triggered by office visits, tied to EHR-based documentation, and compiled through retrospective abstraction.

Virtual care challenges those assumptions. Patient interactions now occur across asynchronous channels, care coordination is increasingly decentralized, and the concept of a “visit” has become more fluid. As a result, gaps in attribution, incomplete documentation, and inconsistent measure logic have all become more common, raising the stakes for compliance and accuracy.

Provider groups must now account for:

• Data fragmentation across care modalities
• Attribution issues tied to non-visit-based care
• Incomplete documentation workflows in virtual settings
• Increased scrutiny around performance benchmarks

Without the right infrastructure in place, these risks can directly impact scoring, reimbursement, and audit readiness.

Aligning Virtual Care with Regulatory Requirements CMS has already begun updating its requirements to reflect this shift. The transition toward digital quality measurement (dQM), the adoption of FHIR-based APIs, and the push for greater interoperability all reflect a broader move away from static, retrospective reporting.

Virtual care is accelerating that timeline. Real-time engagement and continuous monitoring generate data at a different rate, and reporting systems must be able to keep pace.

For provider organizations, this means taking proactive steps to ensure reporting strategies are:

• Compatible with hybrid and virtual care workflows
• Configured to aggregate data from multiple sources
• Built for audit-ready traceability and compliance
• Aligned with evolving CMS measure specifications

Organizations that delay this alignment risk falling behind, not just in performance, but in eligibility and incentive opportunity.

The Role of Qualified Registries in a Virtual Landscape In this increasingly complex environment, CMS-qualified registries serve as a stabilizing force. Rather than relying solely on internal EHR logic or manual data pulls, provider groups can leverage registries to centralize data, ensure completeness, and streamline submission.

For groups delivering care virtually, the value of a registry is magnified:

• Measure Mapping: Aligning clinical activity across in-person and virtual care with relevant CMS quality measures
• Attribution Support: Clarifying provider-patient relationships in non-traditional care models
• Gap Identification: Spotting performance blind spots tied to data lags or decentralized workflows
• Submission Integrity: Ensuring compliant formatting, audit traceability, and performance optimization

With the right registry partner, virtual care is not a barrier to reporting, but a strength.

Strategic Outlook for Performance-Driven Organizations As the healthcare system continues its shift toward digital-first models, reporting strategies must evolve in kind. Provider organizations that treat quality reporting as a compliance task risk missing the strategic potential it holds in today’s environment.

Forward-thinking groups are approaching reporting as a growth function – one that reflects performance, drives reimbursement, and positions them competitively in the value-based care space.

Virtual care is not a disruption to that goal, it’s a driver of it – only if systems are in place to translate engagement into measurable outcomes.

Quantician is a CMS-qualified registry helping provider groups, health systems, and ACOs navigate quality reporting across MIPS, APMs, and MSSP. From measure mapping and gap analysis to performance optimization and submission, our team helps translate clinical activity into strategic outcomes.