Health care providers may get a break on reporting burdens thanks to changes just announced by CMS.
Starting in spring 2015, the change to the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs will address concerns physicians have over software implementation, information exchange readiness and more.
Since the program was introduced in 2011, over 400,000 physicians have adopted EHRs and have satisfied the meaningful use requirements. However, physicians still have concerns about upcoming requirements.
CMS is considering proposals to align hospital EHR reporting periods to the calendar year so that hospitals will have more time to implement 2014 software, change parts of the program to sustain long-term goals, reduce complexity, and ease reporting burdens for physicians. It is also considering compressing the EHR reporting period in 2015 to 90 days to accommodate all of the changes.
CMS noted that these changes will not apply to the upcoming Stage 3 proposed rule that it plans to release by early March. But the agency intends to limit the scope of the Stage 3 proposed rule to the requirements and criteria for meaningful use in 2017 and following years.
