On April 27, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a new proposed rule that, along with increasing hospital payments, proposes changes to the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program (formerly known as the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program or “meaningful use”).
CMS highlighted the following changes to the program:
- The minimum score required for the objectives and measures under the program to be considered a meaningful EHR user would be increased from 50 points to 60 points (out of 100).
- The current minimum of a continuous 90-day EHR reporting period for new and returning eligible hospitals and CAHs would continue through 2023 but would be extended to a minimum of a continuous 180-day period starting in 2024.
- The “Electronic Prescribing Objective’s Query of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program” measure would still be optional, but its bonus points would increase from 5 points to 10 points.
- The “Provide Patients Electronic Access to their Health Information” measure would be updated to require hospitals and CAHS to maintain electronic health information from encounters on or after January 1, 2016.
- A new “Health Information Exchange Bi-Directional Exchange” measure would be added as an alternative to the two existing measures.
- Reporting on four of the Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange Objective measures would be required (Syndromic Surveillance Reporting; Immunization Registry Reporting; Electronic Case Reporting; and Electronic Reportable Laboratory Result Reporting), but the Public Health Registry Reporting and Clinical Data Registry Reporting measures would remain optional.
- Beginning on January 1, 2022, eligible hospitals and CAHs would be required to attest to having completed an annual assessment via a SAFER Guides measure, as part of the Protect Patient Health Information objective.
- Under the prevention of information blocking requirement, attestation statements 2 and 3 would be removed.
- Two new electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) would be added with the reporting period in 2023 and four eCQMs would be removed in 2024.
The attorneys at Chilivis Grubman represent clients of all types and sizes, including health systems and hospitals, or other providers using electronic health records or negotiating agreements to adopt and use an electronic health record. If you need assistance with such a matter, please contact us today.