Anesthesia Coding Alert

EHR system could see big changes.

Technology in healthcare has some definite advantages, but can also have drawbacks. Electronic medical records are one example of how technology had pushed healthcare forward by making documentation, billing, and prescribing easier than ever before. Some providers and experts, however, believe that the free flow of information from provider to patient has been hampered by regulation. CMS wants to change that.

Review: In a release at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, CMS advised practices that it plans to "overhaul" the current federally-mandated EHR system that's tied to Medicare reimbursement and improve patients' access to their own health data.

Pocket this overview of the biggest takeaways from CMS Administrator Seema Verma's announcement at HIMSS. Initiatives outlined in the fact sheet aim to:

• Make reporting quality measures easier and more affordable by spotlighting interoperability in a "streamlined" renovation of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for hospitals and the Quality » Payment Program's Advancing Care Information (ACI) for eligible clinicians.
• Offer QPP measures that promote the efficient sharing of data between patients and providers.
• Stop patient information blocking with new reporting requirements for hospitals and physicians.
• Require practices to update their Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) to the 2015 editions, which include better application programming interfaces (APIs), by 2019.
• Pinpoint the exact patient information mandated to be delivered to the patient electronically upon discharge.
• Streamline policies regarding evaluation and management (E/M) codes "to modernize documentation requirements and reduce clinician burden" in coordination with stakeholder feedback.
• Rework systems to cut down duplicate testing issues.

Resource: To read the new CMS guidance on interopera­bility initiatives in greater detail, visit the CMS fact sheet at www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2018-Fact-sheets-items/2018-03-06.html.