On Thursday, February 23, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, released a 455-page Proposed Rule specifying the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to qualify for Medicare and/or Medicaid incentives related to electronic health records (EHRs). The Proposed Rule also proposes to modify certain Stage 1 criteria, as well as criteria that apply regardless of Stage, as previously published in the Final Rule on July 28, 2010 in the Federal Register. The proposed provisions related to Medicaid (calculations of patient volume and hospital eligibility) would take effect shortly after the finalization of the Proposed Rule and would not be subject to the proposed one-year delay for Stage 2 meaningful use of a certified EHR. The Proposed Rule states that the changes to Stage 1 would take effect for 2013, but that most changes would be optional until 2014. Last but not least, the Proposed Rule addresses the Medicare payment adjustments that will take place for EPs, eligible hospitals and CAHs who fail to demonstrate a meaningful use of certified EHRs by 2015 and proposed exceptions to such adjustments.
Eligible Professional Incentives
Farzad Mostashari, MD, speaks at 2011 Kentucky eHealth Summit
On September 6 and 7, 2011, the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Electronic Health Information hosted the 4th annual Kentucky eHealth Summit at the METS Center, 3861 Olympic Boulevard, Erlanger, KY 41018 in northern Kentucky.
Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for the United States Department of Health & Human Services, addressed attendees of the Summit. Dr. Mostashari discussed the Office of National Coordinator’s initiatives and the future of health information technology, including the launch of a Consumer Health IT Program on September 12, 2011. More information about the Kentucky eHealth Summit can be found here.
Kentucky was the first state in the United States to award Medicaid incentive money to a hospital and quickly followed in awards to other healthcare providers who completed an attestation of their plan to adopt, implement, or upgrade an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. For more information about the Kentucky Medicaid EHR Incentive program, and to read the FAQs and access additional helpful links, click here .
Health IT Policy Committee Recommends Delay for Stage 2 Meaningful Use
UPDATE: On July 6, 2011, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., ONC Chief, backed the ONC Policy Committee’s recommendation to delay implementing Stage 2 meaningful use criteria.
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On June 16, 2011, Paul Tang, M.D. , as Vice Chair of the Health IT Policy Committee for the Office of National Coordinator (ONC), wrote a letter to Farzad Mostashari, M.D., the ONC National Coordinator, requesting a delay in implementing Stage 2 of the meaningful use criteria that eligible healthcare providers must meet in order to obtain the monetary incentives for adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). The monetary incentives were established pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act), which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Dr. Tang states in the letter:
The HITPC has heard from both the vendor community and the provider community that the current schedule for compliance with stage 2 meaningful use objectives in 2013 poses a nearly insurmountable timing challenge for those who attest to meaningful use in 2011. With the anticipated release of the final rule for stage 2 in June, 2012, it would require EHR vendors to design, develop, and release new functionality, and for eligible hospitals to upgrade, implement and begin using the new functionality by the beginning of the reporting year in October of 2012. After careful consideration of the trade-offs between the urgency with which new functionality is needed and the ability to safely deliver and to effectively use the new functionality, the HITPC recommends that—only for those who begin to attest to MU in 2011—an extra year be provided to phase in the stage 2 expectations (ie., Stage 2 for those who attest in 2011 would begin in 2014).
The Committee asserts that the delay would only affect providers who implement Stage 1 in 2011. This assumes that providers who wait until 2012 to implement Stage 1 would not have been ready to implement Stage 2 until 2014 anyway. The letter also sets forth the proposals for stengthening Stage 1 criteria in Stage 2. The Committee voted 12 to 5 in favor of the recommendations in the letter. To read the entire 14-page letter, click here.
CMS Opens Registration for EHR Incentives on January 3, 2011
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated its HITECH electronic health records webpage to include information about registration for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Per CMS, registration opens on January 3, 2011 and a link will be available on the CMS HITECH website here. CMS encourages providers to register for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program(s) as soon as possible. Providers can register before they have a certified EHR. CMS encourages providers to register even if they do not have an enrollment record in PECOS!
CMS also notes that although the Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs will begin January 3, 2011, not all states will be ready to participate on this date. As of this posting, registration will be available on January 3, 2011 for the following states:
Alaska — Iowa — Kentucky — Louisiana — Oklahoma — Michigan — Mississippi — North Carolina — South Carolina — Tennessee — Texas
Information on when registration will be available for Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in specific States is posted here. For more information from CMS about the EHR Incentive Program, click here.
CMS Holds Training Teleconference on EHR Final Rules
On Thursday, July 22, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held a publicly available teleconference to give an overview of the 800+ page Final Rule on Meaningful Use (MU) under the HITECH Act, as well as an overview of the Final and Proposed Rules on Temporary & Permanent Certification Program and the Final Rule on the Standards and Certification Criteria for electronic health records (EHRs). CMS is making an “encore recording” of the 90-minute teleconference available until 11:00 pm, Saturday, July 24, 2010. Call toll-free, 1-800-642-1689 and enter the conference ID 87841621 to hear the encore recording. CMS will post an audio recording link to the teleconference on its EHR Incentive Programs website sometime in August 2010. The slides accompanying the audio are available on that same website, here (scroll to Downloads and click on the links for the July 22, 2010 Training materials).
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