A coalition of electronic health record vendors is pressuring CMS and the ONC to enact a proposed rule that would give providers additional flexibility in attesting to meaningful use during the 2014 reporting year.
Under the proposal, announced in May, providers that were not able to fully implement 2014 Edition certified EHR technology in time to successfully attest to their scheduled stage of meaningful use this year due to vendor delays would be able to use 2011 Edition CEHRT or a combination of 2011 and 2014 Edition to attest to either stage 1 or stage 2. Providers would also be able to attest to meaningful use under the 2013 reporting year definition and use 2013's clinical quality measures.
However, the timing of the proposed rule has frustrated many providers. The 60-day comment period on the proposal won't end until later this month, but the last 90-day attestation period for 2014 began July 1, meaning providers had to make a decision before they knew the fate of the rule.
The 40-vendor Electronic Health Record Association believes many providers acted assuming the proposal would be adopted, according to the group's letter to CMS and the ONC. "We urge that these already-made decisions be considered as you finalize this rule, and that no changes be made in the final rule that would prove problematic for those who acted in good faith based on the proposed rule," according to the letter.
In addition to quickly enacting the rule, the EHRA advocates CMS and the ONC to expand eligibility for the new flexibility to any provider that experienced "timing challenges" in attesting in 2014. "We think that the most equitable approach to flexibility will permit participants to attest in 2014 for stage 2 objectives, stage 1 objectives as defined for 2014 or stage 1 objectives as defined for 2013. Participants should be able to make their determination among these three choices for any timing-related reasons," according to the letter.
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