Health Information Compliance Alert

Hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) that haven’t registered for the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Programs and need to attest for the calendar year (CY) 2021 EHR reporting year need to get on the ball — the deadline is fast approaching.

Recap: As part of the CY 2021 PI Programs requirements, CAHs and eligible hospitals have until March 31, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EST to submit their quality data — four objectives, measures, and two self-selected calendar quarters of electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) data on four self-selected eCQMs — to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), indicates a CMS alert.

The organizations must reach a minimum score of 50 points to satisfy the requirement, and “to be considered a meaningful user and avoid a downward payment adjustment, eligible hospitals and CAHs must have used either (1) existing 2015 Edition certification criteria, (2) the 2015 Edition Cures Update criteria, or (3) a combination of the two for a minimum of 90 consecutive days within CY 2021 in order to meet the certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) definition,” a CMS alert reminds.CAHs and eligible hospitals must submit their attestations via the CMS’ Hospital Quality Reporting System at https://hqr.cms.gov/hqrng/login and find PI Programs information at

>2021 Program Requirements website.