Dive Brief:
- CMS posted a fact sheet Friday outlining its updated reductions for eligible hospitals that fail to successfully demonstrate meaningful use for an EHR reporting period.
- Those eligible hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs will be subject to the payment adjustments as of Oct. 1.
- The change is applied as a reduction to the applicable percentage increase to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) payment rate, CMS wrote, adding that the percentage decrease was 25% in 2015 for the 2013 reporting period; 50% in 2016 for the 2014 reporting period; and will be 75% for 2017 (and after) for the 2015 reporting period.
Dive Insight:
The latest reduction should apply to relatively few, as 98% of eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals across the U.S. have already demonstrated meaningful use at either Stage 1 or Stage 2, according to CMS.
More than 4,800 eligible hospitals may participate in the EHR Incentive Programs, it added. Eligible hospitals are required to demonstrate meaningful use for each payment year to avoid Medicare payment adjustments.
Those unable to comply had the opportunity to apply for a hardship exception to be exempted from the upcoming payment adjustments. Applications are due by April 1 of the year before the payment adjustment year, so applications for 2017 were due April 1, 2016, CMS stated, though it offered an extension this year until July 1 and a new law helped add flexibility in applying the exemption.
Deadlines were extended in previous years as well, as providers and groups including the American Medical Association (AMA) responded negatively to the requirements of the Meaningful Use program as it was originally designed, and the program was transitioned into a part of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).