CMS unveils plan for how doctors, hospitals can get EMR incentives
Published: 2010-01-18 13:37:36By: Chris Silva | American Medical News | January 18, 2010
Washington -- The federal government has issued two sets of regulations that are designed to lay the groundwork for physicians and hospitals to receive payments for implementing and utilizing electronic medical records.
A proposed rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services outlines provisions governing EMR incentives and details what constitutes meaningful use of the technology -- a prerequisite for receiving any bonus dollars. A separate, interim final regulation issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology sets initial standards and certification criteria for the use of approved EMRs.
Both rules were posted in the Federal Register on Jan. 13 and will be open for public comment for 60 days. Numerous organizations, including the American Medical Association, said they were reviewing the rules and plan to offer comments.
At stake is an estimated $14.1 billion to $27.3 billion in net Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments that the government expects to pay over 10 years. The money was made available through the economic stimulus package signed into law in early 2009.
For stage 1, which begins in 2011, CMS proposes 25 objectives for physicians and 23 objectives for hospitals to meet to be deemed meaningful EMR users. Stages 2 and 3 will expand the list in 2013 and 2015, and the added requirements will be proposed through future rulemaking. Hospitals and physicians failing to adopt EMRs and meet the objectives by 2015 will face Medicare penalties.
Each stage 1 objective has a corresponding measure attached to it. For example, an objective for physicians to generate and transmit prescriptions electronically requires doctors to submit at least 75% of all prescriptions electronically using certified EMR technology. Other 2011 objectives include using computerized physician order entry, maintaining patient medication allergy lists and recording patient demographics.