Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Act in time to reap incentives in 2016.

Good News! CMS has extended the deadline for eligible hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) to submit their meaningful use data for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year from Nov. 30, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014.

If your facility is eligible, you’ll have more time to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Incentive payments to eligible hospitals and CAHs are based on a number of factors, “Careful reporting is required so that correct payments can be made. For CAHs, this process must proceed through the cost-reporting process because CAHs are cost-based reimbursed”, informs Duane C. Abbey, PhD, president of Abbey and Abbey Consultants Inc., in Ames, IA.

On the flip side, the hospitals that fail to demonstrate meaningful use will face Medicare payment adjustments beginning in FY 2015. There are no payment adjustments under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

Stage 1 of Meaningful Use: Hospitals must demonstrate the usage of EHR technology toward reporting on objectives and measures related to patient care. Eligible hospitals must submit their response on the proper performance of the following objectives:

• 13 required core objectives
• 5 of 10 menu set objectives
• 15 clinical quality measures.

You can see them all at http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/downloads/hosp_cah_mu-toc.pdf

Stage 2 of Meaningful Use: All providers need to demonstrate Stage 1 before going on to Stage 2. The earliest the providers will demonstrate stage 2 is 2014. Providers who began participation in this program in 2011 would have to report three continuous years of meaningful use Stage 1 before transitioning to Stage 2 criteria in 2014. 

All other providers would have to meet two years of meaningful use under Stage 1 criteria before moving on to stage 2 criteria in the third year. During Stage 2, eligible hospitals and CAHs must meet:

• 16 core objectives
• 3 menu objectives to select from a total of 6
• A total of 19 objectives.

Tip: Your facility can make attestation easier by keeping two important points in mind:

• Log in during non-peak hours such as evening and weekends. The website is likely to be having fewer visitors then, thereby making it work quicker for you.
• Ensure that your information is up to date.

Final takeaway: “EHR meaningful use reporting and associated payments represent a real opportunity for virtually all providers,” says Abbey. “EHR are becoming the norm so that all healthcare providers will eventually have them. If there are additional payments that can be obtained, then due consideration should be made to garner such payments.”