HITPC: $25B doled out for MU; CEHRT flex to keep providers 'on track'

Slowly but surely, Meaningful Use attestations are increasing, according to the numbers reported at the Sept. 3 Health IT Policy Committee meeting.

Almost 490,000 providers have registered for the incentive program although that does not necessarily mean they have participated in the program but have registered their intent to participate, said Elisabeth Myers, policy and outreach lead at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of eHealth Standards and Services.

Just under $25 billion has been paid out to Medicare and Medicaid providers, she reported, and just over 410,000 unique providers have been paid through Medicare and Medicaid.

Ninety-two percent of eligible hospitals have received an incentive payment, she said.

As of the end of August, 8,024 eligible professionals have attested for the 2014 reporting year—1,479 are new--and 3,152 attested to Stage 2. And, 436 eligible hospitals have attested for the 2014 reporting year—136 of which are new--and 143 attested to Stage 2. “We expect to see the numbers continue to go up. This is significantly different from last quarter.”

Myers and Elise Anthony, senior policy advisor for Meaningful Use (MU) at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), also addressed the final rule on certified EHR technology issued on Aug. 29. The rule offers some flexibility to those providers struggling to get CEHRT implemented in time to meet MU deadlines. “Over the course of the past year, we’ve been doing a lot of tracking of availability of CEHRT. There are a number of factors impacting the ability of providers to implement.”

The rule was finalized without any modifications from the draft version.

Anthony said the biggest question from providers is their options to attest. There cannot be a mix between objectives and clinical quality measures. “Think of it in terms of having to do all within that bundle.”

Those scheduled to attest to Stage 1 in 2014 have several options regarding CEHRT and clinical quality measure editions.

Myers noted a “misunderstanding of timing for attestation” which is understandable this year because the federal agencies have never worked by quarters before. But, while quality reporting periods have different attestation times, “there is no reporting period that opens and closes at the end of each quarter. It opens and stays open the whole year.”

She said ONC expects that “people who thought they couldn’t attest will now be able to.”

The rule offers “an opportunity to keep providers on track,” said Anthony. “We expect to see it coming to fruition in the 2015 reporting year.”

She also said the rule imposes only about a three-month window difference in terms of the last opportunity for providers to begin to move to 2014 CEHRT.

A representative of the American Medical Association said they have crunched all the numbers and estimate that between 45 and 54 percent of providers are at risk of dropping out of Meaningful Use. That does not include how many providers were granted a hardship exception. “There are a lot of questions marks here.”