Under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), physicians and hospital organization were required under to attest to meaningful use, meaning that a certified version of EHR must be utilized. According to a proposal that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) released on Tuesday, physicians would be given a break on the EHR [...]
CMS // October 30, 2015On October 30, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule updating payment policies, payment rates, and quality provisions for services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) on or after January 1, 2016. CMS finalized a number of new policies, including several that are [...]
Written by Joseph Conn // October 6, 2015 // Modern HealthcareThe Obama administration, under pressure from Congress and the healthcare industry to ease its mandates for the use of electronic health records, issued regulations for the current and final stages of its incentive program for the technology. But officials also acknowledged the new rules are [...]
Written by Heather Landi and Rajiv Leventhal // September 8, 2015 // Healthcare InformaticsCMS will not comment on if Stage 2 modifications rule and Stage 3 rule will be finalized as one. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent the final rules for both meaningful use Stage 3 and Stage 2 modifications to the [...]
Written by Greg Slabodkin // September 2, 2015 // Health Data ManagementThe Medical Group Management Association, representing more than 33,000 medical practice administrators and executives in practices around the country, has a stark message for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: if you do not finalize much-needed Stage 2 Meaningful Use rule modifications—and soon—many providers [...]
According to a report by CMS, CMS paid out more than $380 million in incentive payments through its physician-quality reporting system and electronic-prescribing incentive programs. Despite the payment incentives, 400,000 providers have accepted pay cuts rather than participating in the incentive programs. A Look at the NumbersIn 2015, 470,000 physicians and eligible professionals received a 5 [...]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), drafted regulations on Friday, March 20, 2015 for the third stage for Meaningful Use (MU), the EHR incentive program that provides financial incentives for the “meaningful use” of certified EHR technology. What does Stage 3 involve? • Introduces a new edition of certification criteria • Proposes a [...]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that the attestation deadline has been extended from February 28, 2015 to March 20, 2015 for eligible providers. The extended deadline will give more time for providers to fulfill requirements of the EHR incentive program and avoid payment penalties. The number of providers to attest to MU may not be as many [...]
Starting in 2015, all eligible providers who have not attested to meaningful use of their EHRs for 2014 will encounter a 1% penalty on their Medicare reimbursement. Penalties will continue to increase to 2% in 2016 and 3% in 2017. Eligible providers currently enrolled in the program must attest for 2014 by Feb. 28, 2015, [...]
The Office of the Inspector General has requested a $400 million FY budget and an additional 284 full-time employees to help expand their audits of the healthcare industry’s use of electronic health records, HIPAA security, EHR incentive payments and fraud. Priorities for 2015 include: Identify EHR system fraud and determine "how certified EHR systems address [...]
