CMS Extends 2014 Meaningful Use Attestation and Quality Deadlines

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use deadline, extension of 2014 meaningful use attestation

On November 24, 2014, CMS announced a one-month extension of the deadline for eligible hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year. Medicare eligible hospitals must attest to meeting meaningful use requirements each year to receive an incentive and to avoid a payment adjustment. The deadline is being extended from 11:59 pm EST on November 30, 2014 to 11:59 pm EST on December 31, 2014, and CMS states this will “allow more time for hospitals to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2014 program year, as well as avoid the 2016 Medicare payment adjustment.”

CMS also extended the deadline for eligible hospitals and CAHs to electronically submit clinical quality measures (CQMs) until December 31, 2014.

Please note that these extensions are only for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program and will not affect the deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

Upcoming Deadlines:

December 31, 2014 at 11:59 pm ET: Attestation deadline for Medicare eligible hospitals and CAHs for the 2014 program year
December 31, 2014: Deadline for hospitals and CAHs to submit eCQMs.
December 31, 2014: End of 2014 calendar year and end of the 2014 reporting period for eligible professionals
February 28, 2015: Attestation deadline for Medicare eligible professionals.

For additional information, check out the EHR Incentives Programs website.

CMS Issues EHR Meaningful Use Hardship Exceptions for Health Care Providers Subject to 2015 Medicare Reimbursement Reduction (Includes Automatic One-Year Reprieve for 2013 Meaningful Users)

March 11, 2014March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi EHR Certification Standards, Electronic Health Records, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use, Physician EMR Stimulus CEHRT, EHR, hardship exception, hardship exemption, Meaningful Use

On February 28, 2014, we posted an article about ICD-10 and Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) announcements by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at the 2014 HIMSS annual conference. At that conference, while CMS refused to extend the deadlines for ICD-10 and Stage 2 MU, it promised to be more flexible about providing hardship exemptions on Stage 2 MU for providers and vendors truly struggling to meet the incentive program’s requirements. CMS said that guidance would be forthcoming. Yesterday, March 10, 2014, CMS issued such guidance. The Guidance is directed solely at providers experiencing EHR vendor issues. Importantly, the Guidance gives an automatic, one-year reprieve for certain providers who demonstrated MU for 2013. Continue reading →

No Further Extensions for ICD-10 and MU Stage 2

February 28, 2014April 7, 2014 Margaret Young Levi EHR Certification Standards, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use, Physician EMR Stimulus American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Certified Electronic Health Record, Certified Electronic Health Record Technology, CMS, EHR, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIMSS14, ICD-10, Marilyn Tavenner, Medicare EHR Incentive Programs, Medicare EHR Incentives, MU, Privacy & Security, Stage 2, Stage 2 Meaningful Use, Tavenner

Update: On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law the “Doc Fix” bill, Public Law 113-93, which extends the deadline for ICD-10 for an additional year. Section 212 of this law prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from adopting ICD-10 code sets prior to October 1, 2015.

Everyone is a-twitter (pun intended) about the announcement on Thursday, February 27, 2014, from Marilyn Tavenner, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), that the deadline for adoption of ICD-10 will not be extended. Tavenner was the keynote speaker at the HIMSS14 conference, and numerous tweets from HIMSS attendees highlighted her assertion that CMS will stand firm on the October 1, 2014 deadline. All entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) must be prepared to use ICD-10 codes on transactions by this date.

Tavenner also affirmed that the deadlines for Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) will not be extended. Providers who are not meaningful users of Certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology under the Medicare EHR Incentive Programs will face a penalty, in the form of Medicare payment adjustments. These payment adjustments will be applied beginning on January 1, 2015. Continue reading →

House Calls for Suspension of EHR Incentive Payments under HITECH Act

October 5, 2012April 16, 2013 Kathie McDonald-McClure EHR Certification Standards, Eligible Professional Incentives, Federal Law Resources, Health care reform, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use EHR Certification Standards, Electronic Health Records, eligible professional incentives for electronic medical records, Health care reform, Health Information Technology, HITECH Act, hospital incentives for EHRs, linkedin, Meaningful Use, ONC, privacy and security of health information exchange, Stage 2

On Thursday, October 4, 2012, in a letter to Secretary Sebelius of the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the United States House GOP called on HHS to suspend incentive payments for the adoption and implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) otherwise authorized under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act). The GOP also asked HHS to delay the imposition of penalties on providers who choose not to use EHRs in their practice (such penalties that pursuant to the HITECH Act provisions are to take the form of reductions in Medicare reimbursements in 2015). Continue reading →

Final Rules for Stage 2 EHR Incentive Programs Released

August 23, 2012March 12, 2014 Margaret Young Levi EHR Certification Standards, Electronic Health Records, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Stimulus, Meaningful Use ARRA HIT Grants, EHR, EHR Certification Standards, EHR incentive, eligible professional incentives for electronic medical records, final rule, Health Information Technology, HITECH Act, hospital incentives for EHRs, Stage 2, State Medicaid EHR Incentives

First, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the long-awaited final rule to govern Stage 2 of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. The rule specifies the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to continue to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs.

Click here for the full text of CMS’s final rule.
Click here to see the fact sheet on CMS’s final rule.

Second, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) also announced a related final rule, which specifies the technical capabilities and related standards and implementation specifications that Certified EHR Technology will need to include to support the achievement of meaningful use by EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs under the EHR Incentive Programs.

Click here for the full text of the ONC rule.
Click here to read a fact sheet on ONC’s standards and certification criteria final rule.

Stay tuned. We will be posting more about these final rules in the days to come.

Wyatt HiTech Law Blog

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