Providers participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program – widely referred to as Meaningful Use – have a little more time to attest to requirements and avoid a 2018 payment adjustment. On Monday, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the previous deadline of February 28, 2017, would be extended to Monday, March 13, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. PT., and not a minute after.
CMS did not cite a reason for the extension, though it’s been speculated that CMS wants to give eligible professionals every opportunity to attest before the window closes. According to CMS, about 171,000 physicians are expected to be penalized this year because they did not attest to meaningful use for 2015.
For physicians who participate in the Medicare but not the Medicaid EHR incentive program, meaningful use attestation will end this year; it is being replaced with the “advancing care information” attestation requirements under the MACRA/MIPS program. Hospitals will continue to use meaningful use after 2017 or until CMS announces differently. As for the Medicaid portion of the EHR incentive program, deadlines vary by state, so CMS recommends participating providers check in with their states for those dates.
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