Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday released a proposed rule that would shorten the reporting period for meaningful use to 90 consecutive days in 2015.
- The proposed rule would also change the reporting year for hospitals to the calendar year. Currently, physicians and other EPs used the calendar year, while hospitals use the fiscal
- The agency will also either reduce or eliminate some requirements under the draft rules, including reducing the requirement that providers have 5% of their patients use technology to download, view and transmit their medical record to a single patient.
Dive Insight:
CMS will accept comments for 60 days. A final rule could be proposed this summer, following the agency's rule-making pattern last year: A proposed rule offering more flexibility in Stage 1 and Stage 2 requirements was unveiled last spring, with final changes made in August.
Todd Richardson, senior vice president and CIO at WI-based Aspirus Inc., expressed support to FierceHealthIT when CMS first announced a shorter reporting period in January.
"Given the amount of feedback they have received, it is good to know that these efforts do make a difference and that our collective voice is heard," Richardson said.