The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are meant to provide incentive payments to eligible providers who adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate Meaningful Use of a certified EHR technology. However, many practices have demonstrated significant issues related to the EHR reporting criteria required for successful attestation.
To answer provider’s concerns, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted new entries on its FAQ system related to public health measure reporting requirements under the EHR Incentive Programs. See if you can correctly answer the following questions before clicking through to the full answers.
1) If a provider utilizes a health information organization that participates with the eHealth Exchange but is not connected to public health entities in the provider’s state, does the provider still need to connect to those entities for purposes of participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program?
Short answer: Yes, to meet the requirements for Meaningful Use, the provider must connect to the appropriate public health entities in his or her state, even if the provider has connected to an eHealth Exchange participant for other reasons.
2) How does a provider attest to a Meaningful Use objective (e.g., the “transitions of care,” “view/download patient data” and public health objectives) where the provider electronically transmits data using technical capabilities provided by a health information exchange?
Short answer: In general, eligible professionals may use an HIE to meet a particular Meaningful Use objective if the HIE has been certified to support that objective.
3) If an eligible professional attesting to Meaningful Use in the EHR Incentive Program submits a successful test to an immunization registry in year 1 of Stage 1 and engages with the immunization registry in year 2, but does not achieve ongoing submission of data to the immunization registry during their reporting period in year 1 or year 2, should the EP attest to the measure or the exclusion?
Short answer: The Stage 1 Meaningful Use measure requires the EP to perform at least one test of certified EHR technology’s capacity to submit electronic data to immunization registries, and follow-up submission if that test is successful.
Additional guidance from CMS appears on the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs website.
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