Dive Brief:
- CMS just gave eligible professionals another 3 weeks to file their attestation of Meaningful Use, extending the deadline from February 28 to March 20, but it still is not enough to satisfy physicians, according to an AMA statement.
- "CMS extended the deadline to allow providers extra time to submit their Meaningful Use data," stated an agency release sent to professionals earlier this week. "This extension also allows eligible professionals, who have not already used their one 'switch,' to switch programs (from Medicare to Medicaid, or vice versa) for the 2014 payment year until 11:59 pm ET on March 20, 2015. After that time, eligible professionals will no longer be able to switch programs."
- The AMA responded to the deadline adjustment with a terse statement from AMA President-Elect Steven J. Stack, MD. "Only 24% of physicians have attested to Meaningful Use for 2014 as of the beginning of February," Stack said in the statement. "The deadline extension underscores that the Meaningful Use program is not working and that policymakers need to act on our recommendations to make it more flexible, remove the measures that physicians are having the most difficulty in meeting and revamp the certification program so that electronic health record vendors can innovate to create products that better serve patients and physicians."
Dive Insight:
At this point, physicians have barely a month left to file their attestations, or face a potential $200 million in combined penalties. It does not seem likely that the other 76% of physicians who have yet to file their attestations are going to make it by the deadline, which will set up a stand-off between a very large number of physicians and the federal government. The AMA has proposed some fixes in a letter it sent to the ONC, but those fixes probably won't happen before March 20.
It is clear from the rhetoric that many doctors feel the Meaningful Use program is broken and should be scrapped completely, which means many may likely sue the government if CMS makes good on its promise to administer penalties. Such disputes could drag out over the course of months and even years, leaving the mission of the Meaningful Use program—to create an electronic records system that serves the needs of patients and providers—floundering in between legal briefs and court dates. This is a worst-case scenario, but unfortunately, it's a possibility.