What Does the Latest Meaningful Use Extension Mean?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday afternoon that hat eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs)would have until December 31 rather than November 30 to complete their meaningful use attestation for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2014 reporting year.

“This extension will allow more time for hospitals to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2014 program year, as well as avoid the 2016 Medicare payment adjustment,” the agency explained.

While the move could help EHs and CAHs that are looking to avoid 2016 payment adjustments for Medicare-eligible hospitals because they failed to demonstrate meaningful use in 2014, it does not address several concerns from other agencies that have been addressed in recent months.

For example, the American Medical Association (AMA) wrote a letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner and Karen DeSalvo, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, in October that said the “view-download-transmit,” transitions of care and secure messaging criteria in stage 2 Meaningful Use should be optional.

“This design creates additional administrative burden – physicians must implement different workflows for different patients and engage in extensive tracking to ensure measures and thresholds are met,” the letter said. “We believe that setting arbitrary thresholds is of little help to physicians and may lead to inconsistencies in the care provided to patients.”

The letter also called on CMS, ONC, and other agencies to develop and deploy training across the country to help physicians better prepare for protecting and securing PHI. The level of education and training needed to attain meaningful use is substantial, and many physicians do not have detailed knowledge of data security.

Moreover, the AMA, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) asked CMS earlier this month to consider shorter meaningful use reporting periods in 2015. The groups said that the recent meaningful use data “validated the concerns of providers and IT leaders.”

Specifically, it showed that healthcare providers struggled greatly in 2014 and then the reasons were often out of their control. Unless something is done, the groups said, there will be continued dissatisfaction with EHRs and the meaningful use program.

Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy for CHIME spoke with EHRIntelligence.com about the extension, and said that this is “welcome news” for hospitals that have had problems trying to meet meaningful use deadlines this year.

“But the extension also points to the degree of program complexity and the level of reporting burden associated with attesting to meaningful use,” Smith said. “Further, this announcement does nothing to help hospitals struggling to meet full-year reporting requirements in 2015 – something CHIME and many other organizations have been pleading for.”

It is yet to be seen what changes CMS might implement for meaningful use farther down the road, but this is a reminder for healthcare organizations to remain current on their attestation process. Healthcare security measures are essential for all facilities, and cannot be pushed aside when organizations attempt to keep pace with other regulations.

Is this deadline extension going to have an effect on  healthcare organizations? Leave your thoughts below.