The Proposed Rule is Out but How Do You Demonstrate “Meaningful Use” of Electronic Health Record Technology?
On December 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that establishes the criteria that eligible hospitals and providers must meet to receive incentive payments for being a “meaningful user” of electronic health record (EHR) technology. The 556-page NPRM has left many providers wondering exactly what they will have to do to receive the incentive payments in the first year and beyond.
To receive payments during the first year, eligible providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of EHR technology for any continuous 90-day period during that first year. For eligible professionals, the first year is the calendar year for 2011. For eligible hospitals, the first year is the 2011 Federal fiscal year, which commences on October 1, 2010. In all subsequent years, eligible providers will have to demonstrate “meaningful use” during the entire year.
So what do eligible providers have to do to demonstrate “meaningful use” of certified EHR technology? Simply stated, eligible providers must meet the objectives and measures set forth in the NPRM and provide information on clinical quality measures to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Meeting these objectives and measures, however, is not going to be simple.
The NPRM has 23 separate objectives and measures for eligible hospitals and 25 separate objectives and measures for eligible providers. To receive the incentive payments, eligible providers must meet all of their respective objectives and measures. The objectives and measures include a host of requirements including requiring that eligible professionals use e-prescribing for at least 75% of all permissible prescriptions, provide clinical summaries for at least 80% of office visits, and perform a test of the EHR’s capacity to submit electronic data to immunization registries. The NPRM does a good job of summarizing all of the objectives and measures in a table, which can be viewed by clicking here.
The NPRM also requires eligible professionals to report certain clinical quality measures to the Secretary of HHS. The NPRM contains a set of three core quality measure that all professionals will have to use as well as measures that are specialty specific. Like the objectives and measures, the clinical quality measures are summarized in various tables, which can viewed by clicking here .
We encourage you to review the objectives, measures, and clinical quality measures and begin to evaluate how you can meet these in time to receive incentive payments during the first year of the program, which is quickly approaching. As you review them, you may wish to submit comments to CMS, which you can do until March 15, 2010.
For more information regarding participation in Medicare and Medicaid’s incentive payment programs for implementing and demonstrating “meaningful use” of EHR technology, please contact Steven D. Gravely, Health Care Practice Group Leader, at (804) 697-1308 or steven.gravely@troutmansanders.com or Erin S. Whaley at (804) 697-1389 or erin.whaley@troutmansanders.com.