Reactions To CMS' Changes To MU Criteria
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The National Partnership for Women & Families and HIMSS release statements.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule to modify the EHR Incentive Program (Meaningful Use) participation requirements for the period between 2015 and 2017. The MU fix rulemaking is intended to increase flexibility and reduce the reporting burden for participating physicians and hospitals and is separate from the Stage 3 proposed rule published a few weeks ago. It has been published in the Federal Register for a 60-day comment period.
The proposed changes have garnered immediate response from several stakeholders. In a published statement, Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, called the modifications “a startling and unwelcome departure from the administration’s commitment to healthcare transformation that produces higher value, more patient- and family-centered care. All of us who care about achieving the ‘Triple Aim’ – better care, better health, and lower costs – know that success depends on patients being equal and engaged partners, true co-creators, of their health and their care. This rule signals a turn in precisely the wrong direction.”
HIMSS also released a statement responding to the CMS proposal, explaining that this new rule is designed to “reduce reporting burden, eliminate redundant and duplicative reporting, better align the objectives and measures of meaningful use, and focus Stages 1 and 2 of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs on advanced use of EHR technology.” Under the proposed rule, the Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Program reporting period in 2015 would become a 90-day period aligned with the calendar year.
Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, HIMSS North America Vice President, said, “HIMSS is encouraged that CMS has listened to our members and other stakeholder concerns and included more realistic parameters for providers and hospitals, so they can meet the Meaningful Use requirements in 2015 and beyond.”
Ness argues, however, the proposal would “put progress in reverse because providers would now only have to show that one patient, rather than five percent of their patients, used online access to their information and that secure messaging was merely turned on, not whether any patient has actually used it.
“This rule is a dramatic retreat from essential, ongoing efforts to make patients and their families equal partners in improving health through shared information, understanding and decision-making. It would undermine recent initiatives that advance value-based delivery system reform.”