In a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Andrew Slavitt, the American Hospital Association pressed to finalize the shorter, 90-day reporting period that the federal agency had proposed for 2015.
In April, CMS released a proposed rule that would alter reporting requirements for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program to a 90-day period instead of the current one-year period until 2017 when meaningful use stage 3 is proposed to go into effect.
The AHA submitted comments to CMS saying while it appreciates and supports the 90-day reporting period, the association has concerns about implementing the change in the middle of a program year, "which could cause confusion and increase burden for hospitals, particularly for those new to the program."
The AHA recommends CMS finalizes the shortened reporting period as quickly as possible to provide greater flexibility to providers attesting to meaningful use stage 2.
Additionally, the AHA offered these four recommendations.
- Allow hospitals to choose to report on either a calendar year or fiscal year schedule until 2017, which is when mandatory calendar year reporting goes into effect.
- Open the 2015 attestation window by Aug. 1, 2015.
- Finalize the proposed changes to meaningful use objectives that offer greater flexibility for providers.
- Refrain from making changes to meaningful use that may make attesting and achieving stage 2 more difficult.
"Our comments generally support proposed changes that increase the odds of program success and encourage the agency to refrain from finalizing provisions that could hinder providers' efforts," the AHA wrote. "The meaningful use program must succeed so that we can build on the tremendous adoption of EHRs over the past five years and use EHRs to support care improvements, patient engagement and new models of care."
More articles on meaningful use:
Dr. John Halamka: 4 thoughts on MU, information blocking and interoperability
HIMSS comments on MU stage 3
How MU Stage 3 might change EHR