CMS Online Tool to Help Providers Sort Through Meaningful Use
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new interactive decision tool to help providers determine how a proposed change to this year's meaningful use reporting would affect them.
In May, CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) proposed a rule that would aim to provide providers more flexibility for meaningful use reporting in 2014. The proposed rule stated hat providers can use the 2011 Edition of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology (CEHRT) or a combination of 2011 and 2014 Edition CEHRT for the EHR reporting period in 2014 for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. In 2015, the rule proposes that hospitals and professionals would be required to report using 2014 Edition CEHRT.
The proposed rule pleased stakeholders, who said that it offers the flexibility providers and hospitals need to stay in the program. Providers can now use the new tool to determine their attestation options for this year based on their current EHR system. According to CMS, the tool is designed to guide providers through the proposal’s participation options.
