March 31st Attestation Deadline for Eligible Professionals

March 18, 2014 Margaret Young Levi Electronic Health Records, Health Information Technology, Meaningful Use EHR, Electronic Health Records, Health care reform, Health Information Technology, Meaningful Use, meaningful use of certified EHR

Reminder: The deadline for Medicare eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology for the 2013 program year is just two weeks away. Attestations are due on March 31, 2014 at 11:59 pm EST. Click here for addition information about the EHR incentive program as well as to register or attest to meaningful use.

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 →

March 1, 2014 is Deadline to Report Breaches Affecting Less than 500

February 28, 2014March 12, 2014 Kathie McDonald-McClure Electronic Health Records, Federal Law Resources, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law HIPAA breach, HIPAA Omnibus Rule, linkedin, privacy and security of protected health information, reporting data breach to OCR

Saturday, March 1, 2014, is the deadline for entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to report to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) all “small breaches” of unsecured protected health information that occurred during 2013. Entities subject to this deadline include a health care provider that conducts certain transactions in electronic form, health plans and health care clearinghouses. A “small breach” is a breach affecting less than 500 individuals.

Although affected individuals must be notified within 60 days of the breach’s discovery, the breach itself also must be reported to OCR within 60 days of the close of the calendar year in which it was discovered, or by March 1 of the following year. The notice must be submitted electronically. A separate breach notification form must be completed for each breach. To submit breach notification reports to OCR, click here.

Remember: HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, has a new definition of a “breach” that became effective March 26, 2013. It is OCR’s position that a breach is presumed—unless an entity can demonstrate that there is a Low Probability that the data has been Compromised (LoProCo). With any loss, theft or potential unauthorzed access to unsecured protected health information, entities should immediately perform a risk assessment and look at certain factors to decide whether there is a low probability of compromise or LoProCo. If a LoProCo analysis is not done, a breach is presumed and, even if under a LoProCo analysis it would not have been a breach, a loss, theft or unauthorized access of unsecured protected health information must be reported as a breach to OCR. For more information about the LoProCo analysis, see our previous post on December 1, 2013, here.

CMS Provides Detailed Instructions on Deadline Extension for 2013 MU Attestation

February 12, 2014March 12, 2014 Kathie McDonald-McClure Electronic Health Records, Eligible Professional Incentives, Health Information Technology, HITECH Law, Hospital EHR Incentives Electronic Health Records, Extension of 2013 Meaningful Use Attestation Deadline, HITECH Act, hospital incentives for EHRs, Meaningful Use, physician incentives for EHRs

On Friday, February 7, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an extension until 11:59 pm on March 31, 2014 for Eligible Professionals to submit their 2013 EHR Meaningful Use (MU) attestation. In addition, Eligible Hospitals that had trouble submitting their 2013 MU attestation may be able to retroactively submit their attestation to avoid the 2015 payment adjustment but must contact CMS by March 15, 2014 at 11:59 pm to do so. Note that only the attestation deadline is being moved. The requirement to meet MU by September 30, 2013 for Eligible Hospitals and by December 31, 2013 for Eligible Professionals in order to avoid the 2015 payment adjustment is not affected.

What’s new from our previous post about this? Today, CMS published specific instructions on how to take advantage of the extensions of the 2013 MU attestation deadlines in its MLN Connects, Weekly Provider eNews dated Thursday, February 13, 2014. Scroll to the section titled “New EHR Attestation Deadline for Eligible Professionals: March 31” which provides instructions for both Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals. CMS also updated the Eligible Professional 2013 attestation deadline on its EHR Incentive Programs home page.