Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday released its proposed rule for meaningful use Stage 3.
- The proposed rule would "continue to encourage electronic submission of clinical quality measure (CQM) data for all providers where feasible in 2017," ultimately requiring hospitals, physicians and other EPs to meet Stage 3 requirements by 2018. The draft rules also "establish requirements to transition the program to a single stage for meaningful use."
- Under the proposed rule, the agency would "change the EHR reporting period so that all providers would report under a full calendar year timeline," with a limited exception under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program for providers meeting meaningful use requirements for the first time.
Dive Insight:
The proposed rule seeks to ease provider burden by adopting "a simplified reporting structure on a focused set of objectives and associated measures to replace all criteria under Stages 1 and 2."
It also will continue the agency policy of linking meaningful use objectives to CEHRT definitions and ONC-established certification criteria. As in Stage 1 and Stage 2, EPs, eligible hospitals and CAHs all must use technology that meets the certification criteria in the ONC Health IT Certification Program in order to meet Stage 3 objectives.
The agency will be accepting comments until May 29.