CMS rule Finalizes Changes in meaningful use reporting

CMS will just need doctors and hospitals to track meaningful use reporting data for ninety continuous days this year and next under a policy finalized on the day of Tuesday. For 2 years, at least, the move will settle the debate over the hotly contested need. Hospital and doctor groups — along with sympathetic members of the Congress — had made a complain that a year-long reporting period was too complicated and would compel providers to abandon the meaningful use program, putting it at danger. The American Hospital Association claimed that it was “glad” and “motivated” by the rule of Tuesday.

More meaningful use reporting changes in the rule:

— Removal of clinical decision support and computerized provider entry measures in the year of 2017 and subsequent years for hospitals.

— Establishment of a 1-time hardship exemption from 2018 penalties for doctors who are new to the program in the year of 2017 and transitioning to new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System of MACRA.

— CMS will sustain to work on incorporating electronic clinical quality measures into quality reporting program of Medicare for hospitals, despite commenters who stated that this would duplicate meaningful use reporting.

Modifications in requirements to Stage 3, which is optional in the year of 2017 and required in the year of 2018:

— Decreasing the percentage of sufferers whom hospitals must securely message from 25% to 5%.

— Dropping to a single patient the number of patients who must view, download and transmit their records.

— Dropping from 40% to 10% the number of electronic patient records that hospitals must get, and the summary of care documents they must incorporate.

The changes do not apply to hospitals merely attesting to Medicaid meaningful use.

The AHA was dissatisfied CMS kept a 2018 start for Stage 3, stated Ashley Thompson, the group’s senior vice president of public policy. Also, the need that hospitals make application program interfaces — APIs — available to third-party app developers is “concerning” provided the security threats and the absence of standards, she claimed.

For Further information, please visit these links mentioned below:

Find the final rule here. CMS’s release here. The AHA’s full statement here.