Just before the New Year CMS issued a 556-page proposed rule detailing how you can earn an electronic health record (EHR) incentive starting in 2011. The incentives could mean thousands of dollars of additional revenue per provider for your practice.
We've loaded the proposed EHR incentive rule on the blog for you to download. We're in the process of reading the entire rule and will have more on it on www.partbnews.com and in the Jan. 11 newsletter.
The proposal outlines the provisions governing the EHR incentive programs, including defining the central concept of "meaningful use" of EHR technology. An interim final regulation (IFR) issued by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) sets "initial standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for EHR technology," CMS stated in a press release.
CMS will accept public comments on the rule over the next 60 days. You may submit comments:
- 1. Electronically. You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to www.regulations.gov.
- 2. By regular mail. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-0033-P, P.O. Box 8013, Baltimore, MD 21244-8013.
NOTE: Refer to the rule ID CMS-0033-P when submitting comments.
UPDATE: The Medical Group Management Association released a statement calling the proposed rule "overly complex."
The MGMA says,
[t]he rules include a number of requirements which will create significant barriers to physician efforts to achieve the designation of and prove that they are "meaningful users" of an EHR including:
- Unreasonable thresholds for some of the meaningful use criteria (i.e., computerized prescription order entry, electronic claim submission, electronic insurance eligibility verification, and others);
- Potentially difficult meaningful use attestation after the first year; and
- A requirement that physician offices provide patients and others with electronic copies of medical records.