In comments to CMS and ONC, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives has expressed concerns related to the EHR reporting period and CMS' approach to clinical quality measures in the proposed rule for Stage 2 meaningful use.
CHIME suggests that CMS allow eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to demonstrate meaningful use during a 90-day reporting period for their first payment year to give them time to better prepare. "To allow adequate time for application development, provider adoption and testing, CMS should follow the precedent set in Stage 1," CHIME said.
The organization also urged ONC to require certification of EHR products for all clinical quality measures in each setting. "Through our experiences with Stage 1, we found that although EHR products were able to automatically produce CQM reports, the data was inaccurate and largely incomparable across different providers," said CHIME.
In the comments, CHIME also makes recommendations for the 42 proposed objectives for ambulatory and inpatient settings of care. "The menu set for both EPs and hospitals is quite small in relation to the minimum number that would need to be met, thereby providing relatively few options for EPs and hospitals," the comment letter said. "A number of the proposed menu set objectives and measures would have non-trivial cost implications for EPs and hospitals." CHIME urged CMS to assess the number and feasibility of menu options for the average physician practice or hospital in finalizing its Stage 2 rule.
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CHIME suggests that CMS allow eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to demonstrate meaningful use during a 90-day reporting period for their first payment year to give them time to better prepare. "To allow adequate time for application development, provider adoption and testing, CMS should follow the precedent set in Stage 1," CHIME said.
The organization also urged ONC to require certification of EHR products for all clinical quality measures in each setting. "Through our experiences with Stage 1, we found that although EHR products were able to automatically produce CQM reports, the data was inaccurate and largely incomparable across different providers," said CHIME.
In the comments, CHIME also makes recommendations for the 42 proposed objectives for ambulatory and inpatient settings of care. "The menu set for both EPs and hospitals is quite small in relation to the minimum number that would need to be met, thereby providing relatively few options for EPs and hospitals," the comment letter said. "A number of the proposed menu set objectives and measures would have non-trivial cost implications for EPs and hospitals." CHIME urged CMS to assess the number and feasibility of menu options for the average physician practice or hospital in finalizing its Stage 2 rule.
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