CMS Reduces Burden on Meaningful Use programs for the year of 2018

The CMS has acted to substantially decrease burdens on hospitals targeting to acquire the meaningful use programs of electronic health records (EHRs).

Hospitals are being given another year to use the 2014 Edition of Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) software. Facilities also now have the option of continuing to meet modified Stage 2 measures for meaningful use programs, instead of being required to move to Stage 3 in 2018. Under the new final rule, hospitals now are not required to meet Stage 3 until the year of 2019.

Hospitals, at their option, also can use a combination of the 2014 and 2015 editions of meaningful use software.

The revisions to meaningful use regulations were issued today in a final rule covering the Fiscal Year 2018 Inpatient Prospective Payment System, which broadly covers payments to providers under Medicare.

Moreover, hospitals will be needed to report only four electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) in 2017 and 2018, rather than eight measures. And, providers can select any quarter of data for eCQM reporting for both years.

Also under the final rule, CMS is developing new requirements or revising existing requirements for eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) participating in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, an expert group that represents chief information officers and other healthcare IT professionals, highly praised the new policies.

“CMS took into account that both hospitals and vendors require more time to prepare for 2015 certified EHRs,” stated Liz Johnson, CHIME board chair and CIO of acute hospitals and applied clinical informatics at Tenet Healthcare. “Taken together, the common sense changes CMS made will give greater stability and certainty to hospitals, permitting them to continue to forge ahead using technology to better treat the patients they serve.”

The 2,456-page final rule, of which just a small portion addresses the meaningful use programs changes, is available here.