HITPC: CMS explains non-returning Medicare providers
Amid press reports that thousands of Medicare eligible professionals (EPs) who attested in 2011 for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive program did not return for the 2012 program year, CMS Health Insurance Specialist Robert Anthony took time to explain the exodus at the Health IT Policy Committee meeting on July 9.
“Some are operating on incomplete information,” he said of the recent reports.
After reaching out to many of the 10,000 EPs that failed to return, Anthony said they found that 82 percent said they still intend to become meaningful users in the future. Reasons for the failure to attest in 2012 include: retirement of the EPs (5 percent); an EP switching to a practice without an EHR (17 percent); failure to meet the deadline (28 percent); and a multitude of factors (50 percent).
Elaborating on the multitude of factors, he said the following reasons were listed in the failure to attest in 2012: Intended to attest, missed deadline (37 percent); too time-consuming (36 percent); waiting for Meaningful Use Stage 2 information (35 percent); too complicated (32 percent); could not meet more than one objective (25 percent); problem with EHR vendor (15 percent); too expensive to maintain (10 percent); program doesn’t fit medical specialty (9 percent); and changed to different EHR system (6 percent).
To prevent more EPs from failing to re-attest, he said the agency is taking a number of steps, including adding basic resources to its website, offering “Ask the Expert” webinars twice per month and partnering with healthcare associations.
“Our next step is making sure information is out there and available,” he said.