Meaningful Use
While most hospitals have contingency plans in place in case something happens to their electronic health records, less than three-quarters of those surveyed by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General have plans that address testing and revision procedures -- a requirement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
More than 90 percent of hospitals across the country make patients' medical record available online, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association.
CMS is now calling for clinicians, hospitals, and critical access hospitals to use a 90-day EHR reporting period in 2016 - down from a full calendar year for returning participants in the government's EHR Incentive Program. They also proposed lowering the bar for achieving Stage 3 objectives, eliminating the Clinical Decision Support and Computerized Provider Order Entry objectives and measures for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.
Steve Lieber, President and CEO of HIMSS, talks about some of the major announcements and activities at HIMSS16, including new government funding for health IT and emerging new payment models.
One week after Andy Slavitt said meaningful use would be replaced soon, the acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator and national coordinator Karen DeSalvo made it clear that the changes would take time and that providers must still follow the current program.
Acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andy Slavitt on Tuesday shocked many in healthcare when he laid out an aggressive timeline to replace the meaningful use program, a electronic health records mandate and incentive program that healthcare providers put millions into.
The meaningful use program is on the cusp of major changes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt said late Monday, adding that 2016 would likely see the end of the program altogether.
A blanket hardship exception from 2015's meaningful use reimbursement penalties passed both the House and Senate last week as part of the Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act, offering providers wider latitude for securing exemptions from possible fines.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, one of the pioneers in building its own software systems, announced it would switch to an Epic electronic health record in November 2017, having weighed the merits of both Epic and Cerner, the hospital announced on Friday.
Congress on Wednesday is considering legislation to allow physicians working in ambulatory surgical centers to receive the same payment incentives for meaningful use of electronic health records as doctors in other settings.