Critical access hospitals, physicians now eligible for Meaningful Use

Physicians who assign their reimbursement and billing to a critical access hospital are now eligible to participate in the Meaningful Use program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced.

CAH II or Method II physicians can start with Stage 1 in calendar year 2014 but cannot attest for the first time until January 2014, because CMS must update information systems to capture the physicians’ national provider identifier and line-of-service payment information so that their claims are tied to specific rendered services.

The newly eligible physicians can earn a maximum of $39,000 in Meaningful Use incentives. Like other eligible physicians, they also now are subject to financial penalties in the form of lower Medicare reimbursements if they fail to become meaningful users by 2015.