Deadline extended for 2015 Meaningful Use attestation

Eligible providers are getting two extra weeks to meet the attestation deadline for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Thursday that the new deadline is 11:59 p.m. EST on March 11, instead of the original February 29 deadline.

The federal mandate—Meaningful Use—incentivizes electronic medical record (EMR) adoption and sanctions providers that fail to actively participate in rigorous documentation rules.

To attest

Eligible Professionals (EPs) may select an EHR reporting period of any continuous 90 days from January 1, 2015 (the start of the 2015 calendar year) through December 31, 2015.

Eligible Hospitals/CAHs may select an EHR reporting period of any continuous 90 days from October 1, 2014 (the start of the federal fiscal year) through December 31, 2015.

To report

Eligible professionals must meet 10 objectives on the attestation worksheet. It must include one consolidated public health reporting objective with measure options requiring eligible professionals scheduled to be in Stage 1 to meet at least one public health measure, and EPs scheduled to be in Stage 2 to meet two public health measures. Here’s a look at the objectives:

1. Protect electronic health information created or maintained by the CEHRT through the implementation of appropriate technical capabilities.
2. Use clinical decision support to improve performance on high-priority health conditions.
3. Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines.
4. Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx).
5. The EP who transitions their patient to another setting of care or provider of care or refers their patient to another provider of care provides a summary care record for each transition of care or referral.
6. Use clinically relevant information from CEHRT to identify patient-specific education resources and provide those resources to the patient.
7. The EP who receives a patient from another setting of care or provider of care or believes an encounter is relevant performs medication reconciliation.
8. Provide patients the ability to view online, download, and transmit their health information within 4 business days of the information being available to the EP.
9. Use secure electronic messaging to communicate with patients on relevant health information.
10. The EP is in active engagement with a public health agency to submit electronic public health data from CEHRT except where prohibited and in accordance with applicable law and practice.

For each objective with a percentage-based measure, certified EHR technology must include the capability to electronically record the numerator and denominator and generate a report including the numerator, denominator, and resulting percentage for these measures. However, eligible professionals may use additional data to calculate numerators and denominators and to generate reports on all measures for the objectives.

For more information and to attest visit the CMS Registration and Attestation Systemsite. Providers participating in the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program should refer to their respective states for attestation information and deadlines. Certain Medicaid eligible professionals may use the Registration and Attestation System as an alternate attestation method to avoid the Medicare payment adjustment (80 FR 62900 through 62901).