The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended the meaningful use attestation period by another month to Dec. 31 of this year. The deadline had been Nov. 30. The extension is for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to attest to meaningful use for the 2014 Medicare EHR program reporting period.
The extension was enacted as a way to allow more time for hospitals to submit their meaningful use attestation data for incentive payments and avoid the 2016 Medicare payment adjustments. CMS also is extending the deadline for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals that are electronically submitting clinical quality measures for meaningful use and the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program.
No reason for the extension was given, though many in the industry believe it's a sign of possible trouble for the program, and a way for the federal organization to mitigate trouble brewing for health systems.
According to FierceEMR, as of Nov. 1, only 43,898 eligible professionals (EPs) and 1,903 eligible hospitals had attested for the 2014 reporting period, despite the fact that there are now more than 500,000 active registrants signed up for the meaningful use program. Of those, only just 11,478 eligible physicians and 840 eligible hospitals attested to Stage 2.
"Providers have been struggling to transition to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program all year," FierceEMR reported. "In response, CMS had also softened the requirement that providers must use 2014 certified EHRs and extended the hardship extension for providers who could not attest because of EHR vendor-related problems. However, many have said that these changes are insufficient."
Hospitals now have until Dec. 31 to submit their eCQM data. However, the extension does not impact the current deadlines for the Medicaid EHR incentive program.
According to the Nov. 24 announcement by CMS, the extension essentially throws a bone to providers and health systems, which have struggled with attestation for meaningful use Stage 2. Eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals who attest by that date will be able to receive a payment and avoid the 2016 Medicare payment adjustment.
CMS, in its announcement, also offered some attestation tips to health systems:
- Consider logging on to use the attestation system during nonpeak hours, such as evenings and weekends.
- Log on to the registration and attestation system now and ensure that your information is up to date and begin entering your 2014 data.
- If you experience attestation problems, call the EHR Incentive Program Help Desk and report the problem.
