Robert Lowes
Disclosures | April 10, 2015
As promised, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today formally proposed to shorten the reporting periodfor its meaningful use incentive program for electronic health record (EHR) systems in 2015 from 12 months to 90 days.
The shorter time frame applies to physicians who are new to the program in 2015 as well as those who’ve participated before. In 2016, only first-time participants will be eligible for a 90-day reporting period.
The shorter time frame, sought by organized medicine, will make it easier for physicians to satisfy the requirements of the incentive program and avoid a penalty. Physicians also will be able to schedule their 90-day reporting period for the latter half of 2015, giving them more time to install an EHR system and train on it.
The program is designed to encourage physicians to use EHRs in specific ways — such as prescribing electronically and compiling medication lists — that improve patient care and lower costs. However, medical societies have complained that the requirements are overly burdensome and not always relevant.
Today’s CMS proposal relaxes the meaningful use program in other ways besides shortening the reporting period. The government said in a news release that it would reduce the number of reporting requirements by winnowing out those that “have become duplicative, redundant, and reached wide-spread adoption.”
And some requirements that make the cut will become less onerous. Right now, 5% of patients in a physician’s practice must access their records electronically under a requirement in the program’s Stage 2 phase. Criticized for making compliance dependent on something a physician can’t control, CMS is proposing to lower this threshold to 1%.
More information on today’s announcement is available on the CMS website.