Physicians who participated in Medicare electronic health record (EHR) program in 2013 now have until March 31 to attest to the meaningful use requirements, a month later than the original deadline of Feb. 28. The extension does not change deadlines for the Medicaid EHR incentive program or any other CMS reporting program.
“This extension will allow more time for providers to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2013 program year, as well as avoid the 2015 payment adjustment,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) said in its announcement of the extension.
Tips for attesting
Physicians who are attesting should visit the CMS registration and attestation system. Technical problems can be directed to the EHR Information Center at (888) 734-6433, which is open 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time Monday-Friday, except federal holidays.
CMS suggests the following tips to minimize difficulties in the attestation process:
- Ensure that payment assignment and other relevant information is up to date in Medicare’s enrollment system, known as PECOS.
- Provide a valid email address for EHR program registration.
- Consider logging in during non-peak hours, such as evenings and weekends.
- Log in now to make sure information is up to date and begin entering 2013 data in advance of the deadline.
- For organizations with more than 1,000 physicians and other professionals assigned to a proxy user, designate additional proxies in PECOS to facilitate attestation.
Advocating for meaningful use improvements
Due to AMA advocacy, CMS extended Stage 2 an extra year, through 2016. The move is intended to give physicians and EHR vendors more time to adequately prepare for Stage 3.
Among the challenges physicians are facing in meeting meaningful use requirements are problems with certified EHR technology. Many physicians have reported these systems are hard to use and not well adapted to their workflow, a problem that was widely reported in a recent AMA study conducted by the RAND Corporation.
In addition to advocating for more user friendly EHRs, the AMA continues to advocate for more flexibility in the meaningful use program. Most recently, the AMA and other health organizations complained to a federal health IT panel responsible for setting program requirements that the program lacks flexibility and pressed for more substantive changes.
