Providers Struggle to Meet Stage 2 Requirements for Electronic Health Records

BACKGROUND ON FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR THE "MEANINGFUL USE" OF CERTIFIED EHR TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE   

(From CMS)

On September 4 2012, CMS published a final rule that specifies the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. All providers must achieve meaningful use under the Stage 1 criteria before moving to Stage 2.

www.cms.gov

The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs provide financial incentives for the “meaningful use” of certified EHR technology to improve patient care. To receive an EHR incentive payment, providers have to show that they are “meaningfully using” their EHRs by meeting thresholds for a number of objectives. CMS has established the objectives for “meaningful use” that eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to receive an incentive payment.  

The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are staged in three steps with increasing requirements for participation. All providers begin participating by meeting the Stage 1 requirements for a 90-day period in their first year of meaningful use and a full year in their second year of meaningful use. After meeting the Stage 1 requirements, providers will then have to meet Stage 2 requirements for two full years. Eligible professionals participate in the program on the calendar years, while eligible hospitals and CAHs participate according to the federal fiscal year.

THE CURRENT PROBLEM

The Stage 2 criteria are scheduled to kick in Oct. 1 for hospitals, and Jan. 1 for physicians and other eligible professionals.  These start dates have already been pushed back one year, but there are still providers who fear noncompliance. In fact, The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the National Rural Health Association, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, the Medical Group Management Association, the American College of Physicians, and the Tennessee Medical Association have all weighed in calling for a Stage 2 delay or adjustment. Vendors particularly face problems developing EHR systems capable of performing calculations for measure providers must report to the CMS under the Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements, experts say. 

"A Modern Healthcare review of the Certified Health IT Product List compiled by HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology shows that just 79 companies, providers and other organizations have developed software and had it tested and certified to ONC-determined software functionality standards for Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements. In comparison, there were 988 developers of health information technology systems tested and certified for Stage 1."