Public Health Case Reporting

Electronic Initial Case Reporting (eICR) is the automated, real-time exchange of case reports from your electronic health record (EHR) system to public health agencies. Instead of relying solely on manual reporting, eICR uses structured data and nationally defined trigger criteria to automatically generate and send case reports whenever a patient encounter meets reporting requirements.

The first step in getting started with eICR is for your practice or provider organization to contact your state or local Public Health Agency (PHA) and notify them of your intent to participate. Each PHA manages its own on-boarding and approval process, and they will tell you exactly what steps you must take to begin. This outreach is required before any automated reporting can be enabled in your system.

The goal of eICR is to:

• Improve timeliness of case reporting to public health.

• Reduce provider burden by automating manual processes.

• Ensure compliance with CMS Promoting Interoperability (MIPS) measures.

• Support public health response by supplying accurate, standardized information.
  
  

With eICR, your practice can:

• Automatically generate and send case reports when patient encounters match industry-defined trigger tables.

• Receive Reportability Responses (RRs) back from public health agencies, indicating whether additional reporting or actions are required.

• Track all case reporting activity in a dedicated Case Reporting Dashboard or directly in the patient timeline for easy review.
  
  

As you explore the related articles in this section, you’ll find guidance on:

• Contacting your PHA and beginning the on-boarding process.

• Using the Case Reporting Dashboard.

• Understanding statuses and responses.

• Meeting regulatory requirements for MIPS.

    

Enabling electronic case reporting (eCR) is the OfficeEMR feature that supports automatic submission of case reports to your public health agencies, helping your practice meet compliance requirements and improve timeliness of public health data sharing. 

The AIMS eCR Implementers Guide identifies the first step in the eCR on-boarding process:

➡️ Your practice or provider organization must contact your state or local Public Health Agency (PHA) to notify them of your intent to participate.

Each PHA manages its own on-boarding and approval process. This outreach is the first step toward activation of case reporting within your EMR. We recommend keeping a copy of all communications with your PHA in your MIPS audit file to support your Case Reporting attestation.

eCR Requirements for MIPS 2025

• Engagement Window: CMS requires practices to begin engagement with their PHA within 60 days of the start of your selected performance period.

• Reporting Window: The eCR measure requires participation for at least 180 continuous days within 2025.

• Timely Response: Once the PHA begins working with you, they may request additional information or steps to complete onboarding. You are required to respond within 30 days to remain in good standing for MIPS reporting.

• Small Practice Exception: If your practice qualifies as a small practice (15 or fewer clinicians) and you are not submitting Promoting Interoperability data, the eCR/Case Reporting requirement does not apply.

Next Steps After PHA Confirmation

Once your PHA confirms your intent to participate, they will provide instructions for the next steps. These may include testing requirements or specific on-boarding tasks.

• If directed, please open a support case with our team.

• Clearly indicate that the case relates to eCR and whether the request is time-sensitive so we can prioritize appropriately.

• Our team will coordinate with you to complete the requested tasks and support your successful on-boarding.

Important Note

⚠️ Do not stop your manual case reporting processes until your PHA has explicitly instructed you to do so. Automated electronic reporting should only replace manual workflows once approved by your PHA.  

 Using the Case Reporting Dashboard

1. Enable Case Reporting

   • Case reporting must be approved by your public health agency before this dashboard is available.

   • See Getting Started with Case Reporting in Knowledge Out for setup steps.

2. Access the Dashboard

   • Navigate to Report → Case Reporting in your EMR.

   • Enter a date range and click Search to see activity.

   • The Export button to export the eICR records that they have filtered into an Excel document for use as a PHA Submission Report.

3. Review Case Reports

   • Sent Queue: Shows automated outbound reports.

   • Unsolicited Queue: Shows inbound reports that need manual review.

4. Check Status & Preview Files

   • Statuses include Waiting for Response, Completed, Failed.

   • Use the Sent and Received buttons to view the outbound eICR and inbound RR files

5. Patient Timeline Access

   • Case report events also appear in the patient’s chart timeline under Health Exchange.

   • Click the arrow icon to open the report details directly from the chart.

When engaging with our electronic case reporting (eICR) module for Public  Health Agency (PHA) reporting, the process uses an automated trigger code table built into OfficeEMR to determine when to build and automatically send an eICR. OfficeEMR is currently using AIMS Version: eICR Data Quality Schematron 2.0. The sending of the eICR uses the practice's direct mail and sends out to the AIMS Platform who acts as a clearinghouse of sorts that validates the file sent, forwards on to the appropriate PHA, and returns a Reporting Response (RR) to the practice. The process steps are as follows:

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