The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Tuesday released the latest data detailing how many physicians and hospitals have successfully attested to the electronic health record (EHR) meaningful use program this year. The results have been met by disappointment but little surprise, prompting health care organizations to call for immediate changes to the program.
The data report reveals that only 11,478 physicians and other eligible providers had attested to Stage 2 of meaningful use by Nov. 1—that’s just 2 percent. While physicians who have already participated in the meaningful use program have until Feb. 28 to attest to meeting requirements this year, the final numbers are not expected to be overwhelmingly higher. Hospital attesters also were in the minority, totaling just 840, or 17 percent.
These abysmal numbers highlight the difficulty of the program requirements and foretell continued struggles in the coming year, even as CMS is busy developing Stage 3 requirements.
The results are “disappointing yet predictable,” the AMA, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and Medical Group Management Association said in a joint news release shortly after CMS released the data. The associations are calling on CMS to take “immediate action.”
More than 260,000 eligible professionals and 3,900 hospitals will be required to meet Stage 2 measures and objectives in 2015, beginning Jan. 1. Anyone who began participating in meaningful use in 2014 or earlier must use a 365-day reporting period next year and beyond. The only physicians who will be allowed to use a 90-day reporting period are those who are participating in meaningful use for the first time.
“In addition to a shortened reporting period, CMS must end its one-size-fits all approach to achieve the goals of the meaningful use program, which are to create a secure and interoperable infrastructure,” said AMA President-Elect Steven J. Stack, MD.
The AMA recently released a blueprint outlining ways to improve the meaningful use program and a framework that details eight priorities for moving toward more usable EHR systems.
“We believe the stringent pass/fail requirement for meeting meaningful use—combined with a tsunami of other overlapping regulations—are keeping physicians from participating in the meaningful use program,” Dr. Stack said.
The AMA and more than a dozen other national health care associations in September sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, highlighting that a shortened reporting period and flexibility on the measures for transitioning care, viewing, downloading and transmitting data are necessary changes to help physicians meet meaningful use requirements.
In addition, the AMA has supported H.R. 5481 (log in), legislation that would shorten next year’s reporting period from one year to 90 days. The AMA also continues to push for program revisions that include no longer compelling physicians to meet 100 percent of the program’s requirements in order to avoid a penalty and seeking ways to simplify the various Medicare quality reporting requirements.
Apply by Nov. 30 for hardship exception: CMS has reopened the submission period for hardship exception applications, allowing more physicians to avoid next year’s payment penalty for not demonstrating meaningful use. The new deadline is Nov. 30. Read more at AMA Wire®.
