Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Plus: Medicare fraud sting snags 20 Michigan suspects for false billings.

If your electronic health record (EHR) implementation isn’t quite ready for prime time, don’t fret. That’s the word from CMS’s latest announcement, which indicates that you’ll have until 2016 to meet the stage two requirements for EHR meaningful use. That deadline was previously set for 2015, giving you an extra year to meet the stage two requirements.

“Under the revised timeline, Stage 2 will be extended through 2016 and Stage 3 will begin in 2017 for those providers that have completed at least two years in Stage 2,” CMS reps said in a Dec. 6 statement. “The goal of this change is two-fold: first, to allow CMS and ONC to focus efforts on the successful implementation of the enhanced patient engagement, interoperability and health information exchange requirements in Stage 2; and second, to utilize data from Stage 2 participation to inform policy decisions for Stage 3.”

The CMS reps were quick to point out that a significant amount of progress was made during the EHR incentive program’s first stage. “Between 2009 and 2012, EHR adoption nearly doubled among physicians and more than tripled among hospitals,” the news release notes. “As of Oct. 2013, 85 percent of eligible hospitals and more than six in 10 eligible professionals had received a Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive payment.”

To read more about the EHR stage two postponement, visit www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/electronic-health-and-medical-records/progress-adoption-electronic-health-records.