Meaningful Use Not Dead Yet

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

CMS clarifies the future of EHR incentive programs.

When Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt told attendees at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference January 14 the “Meaningful Use program as it has existed will now be effective over and replaced with something better,” many industry players rejoiced at its demise. Now, CMS has clarified that statement, emphasizing that “the Administration is working on an important transition for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program,” but the process will take time.

According to the CMS blog post, written by Slavitt and National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, the transition will begin to be implemented this spring with the release of proposed regulations. The new framework shifts the focus from measuring clicks to identifying quality outcomes, the post asserted.

The transition is part of a response to the Obama Administration’s goal last year that 30 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 and 50 percent in 2018 must be linked to outcomes and cost. CMS is searching for the most appropriate way to meet that goal while working with the healthcare industry.

The administration’s commitment to increasing value-based care, paired with the passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) tying Medicare physician payments to quality, cost, and patient care improvements are the catalysts for this transition, according to Healthcare IT News.

According to the CMS blog, the transition work will be guided by several important principles:

• Rewarding providers for outcomes possible as a result of new technology.
• Allowing flexibility to customize health IT to providers’ individual practice needs.
• Leveling the technology playing field to promote innovation and creativity.
• Prioritizing interoperability by implementing federally recognized, national interoperability standards and focusing on real-world uses of technology.

The blog post also notes, however, “While MACRA also continues to require that physicians be measured on their meaningful use of certified EHR technology for purposes of determining their Medicare payments, it provides a significant opportunity to transition the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for physicians towards the reality of where we want to go next.”

That means that efforts to better align MACRA with the HER incentive programs for Medicare and Medicaid hospitals will not happen overnight, but will be an evolving process that will take some time. In the meantime, Slavitt and DeSalvo said that the agency soon will be releasing guidance on streamlining the process for granting hardship exceptions under meaningful use.