Keeping your Regional Extension Center Engaged in the Meaningful Use Process

As a Critical Access Hospital (CAH), keeping your Regional Extension Center (REC) engaged as you attest to Meaningful Use will not only save you time but it may help increase your likelihood of receiving your full Incentive Payment.

As one of the RECs in Colorado, CRHC has been working with the CAHs statewide and is in a unique position to help you review your submission letter from CMS and follow up correspondence from Trailblazers and address each required submission, ensuring the chances of receiving your full Incentive Payment.

Join CMS for a National Provider Call on the Proposed Rule for Stage 2

CMS is holding a National Provider Call on Monday, March 12, from 10:30 – 12:00 pm MDT for eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to provide an overview of the proposed rule for Stage 2 for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

More than $3.2 billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments have been made since the program began last year, and more than 191,000 EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs are actively registered for the incentive programs.  On Thursday, February 23, CMS announced a proposed rule for Stage 2 meaningful use requirements and other changes to the EHR Incentive Programs, which was officially published on Wednesday, March 7.

The call on the new NPRM will cover:

• The extension of Stage 1 meaningful use
• Changes to Stage 1 criteria for meaningful use
• Proposed Medicaid policies
• A Stage 2 meaningful Use overview
• Stage 2 clinical quality measures
• Medicare payment adjustments and exceptions
• Question and answers about the incentive programs (note that we cannot answer questions on the rule beyond what is proposed)

Registration Information:
In order to receive the call-in information, you must register for the call. Registration will close at 12pm on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so please register early. 

The presentation for this call will be posted at least one day beforehand. In addition, the presentation will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the call.

Important Reminder-Medicaid EHR incentives and Medicaid ID

This week we announced that eligible professionals and hopsitals can now register and attest for Medicaid incentives, if they qualify. The first year’s incentive is merely based on “AIU” or acquire, implement or upgrade to a Certified EHR system and not demonstrating the need for 90 days of meaningful use reporting. This incentive option is available to as long as you qualify and have not already attested for Medicare (in which case you will need to demonstrate to Medicaid a 90 day meaningful use.

Every provider who wants to register and attest for Medicaid EHR incentives must have an Active Medicaid participating provider ID. This could affect some of our rural health clinics or practices who employ a nurse practitioner and have not billed for that individual separately (and thus do not have an Active Medicaid ID). It can take 4-6 weeks for HCPF to issue an ID which could delay registration and attestation.

We want to remind our blog readers that their Colorado Rural Health Center/ClinicNet Regional Extension Center (REC) team member can help you with the Medicaid attestation.

The Medicare eRX Program and Rural Health Clinics

Recently, there has been some confusion about the Medicare eRX program and the incentives / penalties. For RHC physicians, they are exempt from this since Medicare does not take into account the place of service code 72 on the Claim that indicates an RHC.

Thus RHC providers are exempt from both the incentive and the penalty.

To the degree they are ePrescribers via their EHR along with the other Meaningful Use criteria, RHC physicians will of course get the Meaningful Use incentive.

For any non-certified RHCs, physicians will need to continue to report G-codes to Medicare for the scripts that are sent electronically.

To view CMS' information on the eRX program, click here.

New HRSA HIT and Quality Webinars

Registration is now open for two health information technology (IT) and quality webinars in March sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):

·         “Using Health IT for Patient Safety”

Friday, March 23, 2:00 PM (ET)  Click here to register:

http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=24836367

·         “Overview of Meaningful Use Stage 2 NPRM for Safety Net Providers”

Friday, March 30, 2:00 PM (ET)  Click here to register:

http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=71352785

Colorado's Medicaid Incentive Program Registration & Attestation Site Now Open!

HCPF has formally released their Registration and Attestation system and website. This will allow any eligible professional or hospital who qualifies for the Medicaid EHR Incentive to register and then attest for the first payment year.

As you know, the first payment year is based on “AIU” or if you have acquired, implemented, or upgraded to a Certified EHR.

For REC participants working with CRHC, we have most likely been discussing the timing of your registration and attestation and is prepared to assist you in the process. We are in the process of learning how the registration and attestation system works-we should be ready to assist qualified clinics/hospitals by the end of this week.

To view the R&A site, click here. It has some very valuable tools that will help you determine eligibility and a checklist of the items you'll need to prepare before Registration.

If you qualify for Medicaid and have previously registered for incentives on the CMS site, please be sure that you register for the Medicaid incentive (many of you registered last year when the CMS site only offered one option-Medicare). It takes 24 hours for the change (or if you are a hospital, adding Medicaid along with Medicare) on the CMS registration site to pass through to the HCPF site.

CMS Has New FAQS for You on Meaningful Use and Attestation

CMS wants to help keep you updated with information on the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. CMS has recently added five new FAQs on meaningful use and attestation. Take a minute and review them below:

1. For meaningful use objectives of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs that require a provider to test the transfer of data, such as "capability to exchange key clinical information" and testing submission of data to public health agencies, can the eligible professional (EP), eligible hospital or critical access hospital (CAH) conduct the test from a test environment or test domain of its certified EHR technology in order to satisfy the measures of these objectives? Read the answer.

2. For meaningful use objectives of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs that require a provider to test the transfer of data, such as "capability to exchange key clinical information" and testing submission of data to public health agencies, if multiple eligible professionals (EPs) are using the same certified EHR technology across several physical locations, can a single test serve to meet the measures of these objectives? Read the answer.

3. For the meaningful use objective of "provide summary care record for each transition of care or referral " for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, should transitions of care between eligible professionals (EPs) within the same practice who share certified EHR technology be included in the numerator or denominator of the measure? Read the answer.

4. For the “Incorporate clinical lab-test results” menu objective of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, how should a provider attest if the numerator displayed by their certified EHR technology is larger than the denominator? Read the answer.

5. How can I change my attestation information after I have attested and/or received an incentive payment under the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program? Read the answer.