Meaningful Use gets a meaningful change: 90-day reporting

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued a proposed change making Meaningful Use more flexible for physicians by allowing them to report only for a 90-day period in 2016. Also included in the change is a hardship exemption for first time Meaningful Use participants to report once in 2017 to satisfy both Meaningful Use and the Advanced Care Information (ACI) performance category in the upcoming Merit-based Incentive Performance System (MIPS). Physicians have long called for the Meaningful Use program to be more flexible among other characteristics. In itsOutpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, CMS has granted a 90-day reporting period for Meaningful Use that will make it less difficult for physicians who are currently experiencing a number of changes, including: Making the required system changes to certified electronic health record technology Implementing a new application programming interface to comply with Stage 3 Preparing for a transition to the MIPS program in 2017 under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) Yet, there is still one major concern. The proposed change to the reporting period may not be finalized until November, which would leave physicians with less than 90-days left in the year to report on —which is exactly what happened last year when the policy was not finalized until after the start of the final reporting period so many physicians were not able to take advantage of the additional flex...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news