AMDIS: CMS probed on bulk registrations for meaningful use
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Colin A. Banas, MD, MSHA, CMIO of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, in Richmond, asked Robert Anthony, a health insurance specialist in the Office of E-Health Standards and Services at Medicare, about the possibility of adding the functionality for mass registration and/or attestation for eligible professionals (EPs). He noted that his facility has approximately 800 potential EPs who are “forced to individually undergo the process one at a time.”
Currently, “there is not the possibility of mass or batch registration on our site," Anthony said. "There is a possibility for proxy registration. In this latter case, an EP can designate a third-party to register and attest on (his or her) behalf.”
Medicare is looking into the possibility of batch registration, noted Anthony, but one sticking point "is that attestation is a legal statement on the part of an EP.” The law requests that individual practitioners participate, not individual practices. “I’m not sure what type of grouping [Medicare] can initiate to circumvent this aspect of the law, but this is why it is not currently this functionality on our site,” Anthony stated.
“Wouldn’t the group practice reporting option from Physician Quality Reporting Initiative serve as a precedent for this?” asked Banas, which he described as “a massive spreadsheet” that the provider could fill out once. He added the current meaningful use registration/attestation process requires 15 pages of data entry for each EP.
This statement garnered spontaneous applause from the audience, reflecting it is a common pain point in the meaningful use registration process.
“Medicare currently has a proposal of a pilot program for EPs to submit their quality measures for meaningful use in the same manner as PQRI, which is currently in the public comment period,” responded Anthony, who encouraged the audience to submit comments. “Certainly, there are areas where these programs could be aligned.”
In the interim, large providers are forced to tackle the arduous process on an EP-by-EP basis. Matthew A. Eisenberg, MD, vice president of clinical informatics at MultiCare in Tacoma, Wash., explained in an interview that his institution has formed a meaningful use project, with one dedicated project manager, but the project is not funded separately.
“Currently, we’re assessing how many of our 450 to 500 providers will meet the meaningful use criteria, and then someone will have to dedicate countless hours to inputting and tracking down all the data for these individuals," he said.
“It seems that CMS wants to improve the current process, which would be very helpful,” according to Eisenberg, “but right now, we’ll have to deal with the way the law was written.”