Dive Brief:
- Providers who waited until the October 1 deadline to attest to meaningful use Stage 2 will likely have 1% of their Medicare payments withheld for 2015. This is due to a problem with the system that will not allow providers to register that they were eligible until mid-October—even if they meet the October 1 deadline.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this past week the glitch in the system, according to Politico. Up until now, few providers have been up in arms about the problem because unless they had attempted to attest online, they would not be aware of the issue.
- Physicians who can provide evidence that they met the standards this year will receive payments for 2014. It is unclear how many physicians will be affected by the problem, but more than 2,300 new providers attested this year, according to CMS.
Dive Insight:
This is yet one more problem with Stage 2 of meaningful use. Notably, providers were unhappy with the recent final ruling that a year-long attestation period would be required. This past Tuesday, two legislators—Reps. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) and Jim Matheson (D-UT)—introduced the Flexibility in Health IT Reporting Act, which would adjust that ruling to require only a 90-day reporting period for 2015.
As CMS continues to create new rules and weave its way through meaningful use, it appears that providers and healthcare groups are getting increasingly disenchanted with the rules. There have been public statements that these kind of problems could be the ruin of the program. But with $25 billion awarded thus far in meaningful use money, it is likely that providers seeing those reimbursements will get on board in the near future.
Want to read more? You may enjoy this story about new legislation that would shorten the MU attestation reporting period.