Meaningful Use Deadline

With the October 1, 2014 deadline for eligible professionals to attest to the meaningful use EHR Incentive Program rapidly approaching, attention has been turned to the CMS attestation website. 

Recently, the reporting options were expanded by CMS, allowing eligible professionals to utilize either the 2011 or 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT), or a combination of the two, to be able to secure the 2014 payment and avoid the Medicare payment adjustment which will go into effect in 2015.

However, there is an issue with the current website used to report. It does not allow new eligible professionals to attest using these new options until after the October 1 date has passed (the site actually won’t allow reporting until mid-October).  Reporting in mid-October results in the eligible providers being unfairly subjected to the 2015 payment adjustment.  Eligible Providers have begun to lobby CMS to oppose the utilization of this website. 

Professional organizations such as the Medical Group Management Association have joined the protest, and recently sent a letter to CMS on behalf of the eligible providers and its members.  The letter requested that CMS Immediately modify their attestation website, extend the attestation deadline for new eligible providers and communicate these changes to the provider community immediately.

We will pay close attention to CMS’s response and any changes to the reporting period and its subsequent website.

As a reminder, if you are a Medicare provider in your second year of Stage 1 Meaningful Use in 2014, you must select a three-month reporting period in a respective quarter.  The only start date left would be October 1.
If you are starting Stage 2 in 2014, again the only start date left is October1 and there are additional core measures that were not required in Stage 1. For more information on the Stage 2 requirements, check out the CMS guide to Stage 2 criteria changes .

For more specifics overall on Meaningful Use and the quality measure, please click here.