Stage 2 Attestation User Guides Now Available

Review Steps for Submitting Stage 2 Meaningful Use Data through the Attestation System

 

Are you preparing to submit Stage 2 meaningful use data for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program? If so, CMS has recently posted the following step-by-step guides to help navigate the CMS Attestation System:

• Stage 2 Attestation User Guide for Eligible Professionals


• Stage 2 Attestation User Guide for Eligible Hospitals and CAHs

These guides provide instructions and important information that you will need in order to successfully attest, as well as helpful tips and screenshots to walk you through the process.

Note: While all providers begin their registration through the CMS Registration & Attestation System, Medicaid eligible professionals and Medicaid-only eligible hospitals must attest through their State Medicaid Agency’s website. Please visit the Medicaid State Information pageto learn more.

 

Additional Stage 2 Resources

CMS has additional resources to help ensure your attestation will be successful:

• Stage 2 Attestation Worksheet for Eligible Professionals


• Stage 2 Attestation Worksheet for Eligible Hospitals and CAHs


• Stage 2 Meaningful Use Specification Sheet Table of Contents for Eligible Professionals


• Stage 2 Meaningful Use Specification Sheet Table of Contents for Eligible Hospitals and CAHs

For More Information

Visit the Registration and Attestation and Stage 2 pages for more information on how to successfully demonstrate meaningful use.

Join CMS on 5/29 to Learn More about Stage 2

Register for the May 29th National Provider Call on 2014 Stage 2 Meaningful Use for Eligible Professionals

 

Are you an eligible professional participating in Stage 2 Meaningful Use? Join CMS on May 29 from 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET for a National Provider Call to learn more about Stage 2 requirements, reporting options, and data submission processes for eligible professionals in 2014.

 

The call will include detailed information for eligible professionals who are required to meet Stage 2 criteria in 2014 on completion of at least two program years under Stage 1 of Meaningful Use in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

 

CMS experts will answer questions submitted prior to the call as well as respond to participant questions during a live Q&A session.  Please email your questions no later than May 21 to be considered.

 

Agenda

The following topics will be discussed on the call:

• Overview of Stage 2 of Meaningful Use


• Reporting


• Data Submission


• Answers to Submitted Questions


• Live Q&A Session

A link to the slide presentation will be posted to prior to the call.

 

Registration

To register for this MLN Connects National Provider Call, please visit the CMS MLN Connects Upcoming Calls registration website. Registration will close at 12:00 p.m. ET on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so please register early.

 

More Information

Visit the Stage 2 page to learn more.

 

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Reminder: EHR Hardship Exception Applications for Eligible Professionals

Eligible Professionals Must Submit Hardship Exception Applications by July 1, 2014

Are you a Medicare provider who was unable to successfully demonstrate meaningful use for 2013 due to circumstances beyond your control? CMS is accepting applications for hardship exceptions to avoid the upcoming Medicare payment adjustment for the 2013 reporting year.

 

Payment adjustments for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program will begin on January 1, 2015 for eligible professionals.

 

However, you can avoid the adjustment by completing a hardship exception application and providing supporting documentation that proves demonstrating meaningful use would be a significant hardship for you. CMS will review applications to determine whether or not you are granted a hardship exception.

 

CMS has posted hardship exception applications on the EHR website for:

• Eligible professionals


• Eligible professionals submitting multiple National Provider Identifiers (NPIs)

Applications for the 2015 payment adjustments are due July 1, 2014 for eligible professionals.  If approved, the exception is valid for one year.

 

New Hardship Exception Tipsheets

You can also avoid payment adjustments by successfully demonstrating meaningful use prior to the payment adjustment. Tipsheets are available on the CMS website that outline when eligible professionals must demonstrate meaningful use in order to avoid the payment adjustments.

 

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Learn more about Stage 2 of Meaningful Use at HIMSS 2013

Attending HIMSS? Join CMS for an Educational Session on Stage 2 of Meaningful Use in the EHR Incentive Programs

 

CMS is participating at the 2013 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans from March 3 – 7.

 

Representatives from CMS are located at booth #2868 from 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 – 6:00 p.m. CT today to discuss the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

March 5 Educational Session

If you are attending HIMSS, please join CMS' educational session #62, Stage 2: EHR Incentive Programs, held today in New Orleans Theater C from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. CT.

 The session will discuss:

• An overview of the Stage 2 final rule


• Stage 2 CQMs


• Medicare payment adjustments and hardship exceptions

Join the Twitter Conversation!

CMS is tweeting from HIMSS13 about the EHR Incentive Programs and other HIMSS13 news. Join the discussion by following the @CMSGov Twitter handle, and look for tweets with the hashtags #HIMSS13 and #CMSeHealth.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Important December Deadline Approaching

Get Paid for 2012: Stay Informed of Key Program Deadlines

December 31 deadline 

The reporting year ends on December 31, 2012 for eligible professionals (EPs) participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in 2012. For participating EPs, this means they must have completed their 90 or 365-day reporting period (within the calendar year) by the end of 2012 in order to receive an incentive payment.

When do I attest?

Medicare EPs must complete attestation for the 2012 program year by February 28, 2013, but can attest as soon as their reporting period is complete.  CMS encourages EPs to register and attest sooner rather than later to resolve any potential issues that may delay their payment. 

Medicaid EPs should check with their State for their attestation deadline.

Resources from CMS

CMS has several resources located on the EHR Incentive Programs website to help EPs properly meet meaningful use and attest, including:

• A Registration & Attestation page on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website that houses information on registration and attestation, and includes links to additional resources. 


• The Meaningful Use Attestation Calculator allows EPs and eligible hospitals to determine if they have met the Stage 1 meaningful use guidelines before they attest in the system. The calculator prints a copy of each EP's or eligible hospital's specific measure summary. 


• The Attestation User Guide for Medicare Eligible Professionals provides step-by-step guidance for EPs participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program on navigating the attestation system. 


• The Attestation Worksheet for EPs allows users to enter their meaningful use measure values, creating a quick reference tool to use while attesting.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Get Paid for 2012: Stay Informed of Key Program Deadlines

December 31 deadline 

The reporting year ends on December 31, 2012 for eligible professionals (EPs) participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in 2012. For participating EPs, this means they must have completed their 90 or 365-day reporting period (within the calendar year) by the end of 2012 in order to receive an incentive payment.

When do I attest?

Medicare EPs must complete attestation for the 2012 program year by February 28, 2013, but can attest as soon as their reporting period is complete.  CMS encourages EPs to register and attest sooner rather than later to resolve any potential issues that may delay their payment. 

Medicaid EPs should check with their State for their attestation deadline.

Resources from CMS

CMS has several resources located on the EHR Incentive Programs website to help EPs properly meet meaningful use and attest, including:

• A Registration & Attestation page on the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website that houses information on registration and attestation, and includes links to additional resources.


• The Meaningful Use Attestation Calculator allows EPs and eligible hospitals to determine if they have met the Stage 1 meaningful use guidelines before they attest in the system. The calculator prints a copy of each EP's or eligible hospital's specific measure summary.


• The Attestation User Guide for Medicare Eligible Professionals provides step-by-step guidance for EPs participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program on navigating the attestation system.


• The Attestation Worksheet for EPs allows users to enter their meaningful use measure values, creating a quick reference tool to use while attesting.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Where to Find ICD-10 Information

On October 1, 2014, you and your practice will be required to switch from the familiar ICD-9 code set to more detailed ICD-10 codes. While ICD-10 contains many more codes, your practice will continue to use only codes that are relevant to the patients you treat. 

Think about your office today – you have been using the same ICD-9 codes for years and have probably memorized the ones you work with most frequently. To prepare for the new code set:

• Identify the diagnoses you most frequently code.


• Use an ICD-10 code book or software tool to look up these diagnoses and review the potential new codes for the best match.


• Understand how your clinicians communicate with your coding/billing colleagues: What words do they use to describe their routine protocols to coders/billers?


• Identify how your practice will enter key words, medical notes, and content in medical records so the protocols are clearly communicated.


• Discuss changes that may occur in clinical documentation to support ICD-10 code selection.


• As you begin testing ICD-10 in the coming year, share your ICD-10 code interpretation and selections with your colleagues to minimize the learning curve and avoid miscommunications.

You may notice multiple ICD-10 codes for a given ICD-9 code. The ICD-10 code structure accommodates more information than the ICD-9 structure, for added detail. The result is a more complete picture of complex medical conditions that your clinical documentation will need to capture. 

To take advantage of the power of ICD-10, your practice will need to:

• Look at how ICD-10 codes differ from ICD-9 codes for your most common diagnoses.


• Identify what additional documentation or descriptive language clinicians might need to include to ensure selection of the correct ICD-10 code.

Keep Up to Date on ICD-10

Visit the CMS ICD-10 website for the latest news and resources to help you prepare.

For practical transition tips:

• Read recent ICD-10 email update messages

Access the ICD-10 continuing medical education modulesdeveloped by CMS in partnership with Medscape

CMS and ONC Release New EHR Regulation Affecting Hospitals

Review the Changes to the EHR Incentive Programs for Hospitals Included in New Interim Final Rule with Comment

CMS and ONC have released an Interim Final Rule with Comment (IFC) that makes several changes to the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and 2014 Edition EHR Certification Criteria that will affect hospitals. The rule also provides notice of CMS's intention to issue technical corrections to the electronic specifications for clinical quality measures (CQMs) released on October 25, 2012.

The IFC's major changes include:

• Revising the regulation text for the hospital measures for the objective of making patient information available online. The measure will now base the denominator not on all patients, but all unique patients.

• Expanding the denominator options for the objective of sending electronic lab results to ambulatory providers. It now allows hospitals to choose between a denominator of all lab orders received from ambulatory providers or all lab orders received electronically from ambulatory providers.

• Moving the CQM minimum denominator threshold effective date from 2014 to 2013, so hospitals can begin taking advantage of this flexibility right away.

More information about the comment period will be included in an upcoming listserv.

 

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Medicaid managed care plan leaders do not consistently use quality metrics to address disparities

According to findings reported in “The Role of Data in Health Care Disparities in Medicaid Managed Care,” published in Volume 2, Issue 4 of the Medicare & Medicaid Research Review, leaders at Medicaid managed care plans in California do not routinely use quality metrics, such as HEDIS, to assess disparities despite having access to data on beneficiary race and ethnicity. While leaders described efforts to improve overall quality as driven by standardized metrics, this did not hold for efforts to reduce disparities. Data were frequently only examined by race and ethnicity when overall performance on a measure was low. Disparities were attributed to either individual choices or to cultural and linguistic factors, with plans focusing interventions on recently immigrated groups, despite trends in HEDIS measures that often did not support this focus.

Read the full article:

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and Systems/Research/MMRR/Downloads/MMRR2012_002_04_A02.pdf

Citation:

Moskowitz, D., Guthrie, B., & Bindman, A. B. (2012). The Role of Data in Health Care Disparities in Medicaid Managed Care. Medicare Care & Medicaid Research Review, 2(4), E1–E15. 

New FAQs on Stage 2 Meaningful Use Measure

Read Our Two New FAQs Providing Information on the Stage 2 Meaningful Use Transitions of Care Measure

CMS and ONC have jointly released two new FAQs that help explain requirements for the transitions of care measure for Stage 2 meaningful use. The measure's objective is: 

The eligible professional (EP), eligible hospital, or critical access hospital (CAH) who transitions their patient to another setting of care or provider of care or refers their patient to another provider of care should provide summary care record for each transition of care or referral..

New FAQs

The FAQs focus on the certification criteria for this measure, as well as more detailed information about the objective. The questions are:

• What certification approaches would satisfy the 2014 Edition transitions of care certification criteria adopted at 45 CFR 170.314(b)(1) and (b)(2) as well as permit an eligible provider to have EHR technology that meets the Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) definition? Please emphasize how the adopted transport standards fit in. Read the answer here.


• For meaningful use Stage 2's transitions of care and referrals objective, in what ways can I meet the second measure that requires more than 10% of the summary care records I provide for transitions of care and referrals to be electronically transmitted? Read the answer here.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?

Make sure to visit the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs websitefor the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.