AAFP proposes alternative MU Stage 2 deadlines

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which represents 110,600 U.S. physicians and medical students, officially joined the chorus of healthcare associations urging the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) to push back the implementation deadlines of Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2. Also, it proposed a revised MU Stage 2 compliance schedule that extends the timeframe for compliance by 12 months.

“We are increasingly concerned that the regulatory expectations of MU Stage 2 and its current timeframe will outstrip the capacity of many certified EHR technology (CEHRT) vendors and ambulatory family medicine practices,” Glen Stream, MD, AAFP board chair, wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner and National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM.

Stream went on to write that for family physicians, 2014 is a “perfect storm of regulatory compliance issues.” AAFP primarily is concerned with implementation deadlines set by CMS and ONC as it feels members are unable to obtain the products and implementation services training and support required to meaningfully use 2014 CEHRT while providing high levels of safety, quality and service, according to the letter.

AAFP’s proposed timeframe creates a modified schedule for each of three distinct cohorts. As explained in the letter:

• Cohort one would include physicians who attest to MU in 2014 as their first payment year and who then would follow a specific timeline for MU reporting to receive a bonus payment;
• Cohort two would include physicians attesting to MU in 2014 as their second payment year, and they would follow a separate set of EHR upgrade and reporting period guidelines to receive a 2015 bonus payment; and
• Cohort three would include physicians attesting to MU in 2014 as their third or fourth payment year. This group also would have to comply with specific EHR upgrade and reporting period guidelines, and qualifying physicians would receive both their 2014 and 2015 MU bonus payments.

"This modified timeline would allow exemplary practices to implement MU Stage 2 requirements early in 2014," wrote Stream in the letter, adding that the experiences of that first group of practices could be leveraged by physicians in the next two groups.

A copy of the letter is viewable here.