Going forward from 2016, meaningful use of certified EHR technology is the new normal, and the only incentives are now disincentives, in the form of negative payment adjustments. With the MACRA legislation of 2015, CMS retooled the Meaningful Use program, ending payments for participation and shifting incentives to other payment models to encourage interoperability and quality patient outcomes... in other words, actually using the data to improve healthcare delivery, not just automating it. Some of the key points:
- 2016 is the last year for Medicare MU incentive payments.
- 2016 is the last year to initiate participation in the Medicaid incentive program (have until 2021 to collect incentives).
- The negative payment adjustment of 2% in future years stays in place for those not attesting meaningful use.
- An additional negative adjustment of 4% is applied for those not reporting Clinical Quality Measures for PQRS and VM.
- All Eligible Providers and Hospitals attest to a single set of objectives and measures for Stage 1 and Stage 2.
- 1st-year participants (Stage 1) have a 90-day windows, with lower thresholds on some measures and fewer exclusions.
- Stage 3 measures start in 2018 for all Eligible Providers and Hospitals. Stage 3 measures drop Clinical Decision Support and Computerized Physician Order Entry, and increase thresholds on information exchange and patient engagement.
ACI can ensure your organization gets the maximum benefit from computerizing your clinical operations, by helping you capture any remaining incentive funds from the Medicare or Medicaid programs, and avoid negative pay adjustments in future years. ACI can document your activities in preparation for an audit, work with your vendor or developer to make desired programming updates, and help your staff implement workflow changes. ACI offers expertise in all of these areas:
- Staff development and Train the Trainer programs on implementations and updates
- Workflow analysis and flowcharting new processes
- Vendor management and support on software updates
- Interfaces to public health agencies and specialized registries for e-reporting
- Secure integration with remote systems for data exchange: HIE and other provider networks
- Consolidating data from multiple sites for reporting on providers that work across organizations
- Batch reporting MU measures for large practices
In October 2015 CMS changed the EHR Incentive Program rules simplifying many measures and changing some of the thresholds. 2016 is your last chance to participate if you have not already started. All eligible providers and clinical facilities that are not in their first year of attestation must meet their respective reporting percentages for the entire calendar year of 2016. Medicaid incentives still run another 5 years.
Don't delay obtaining help if you believe you may need it!
Meaningful Use is just expected
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