CMS has announced a one month extension for eligible hospitals and Critical Assess Hospitals (CAHs) to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR program reporting period 2014 to December 31, 2014. According to CMS, the one month extension will allow more time for hospitals to submit their meaningful use attestation data for their incentive payments and avoid the the 2016 Medicare payment adjustments.
Additionally, CMS is also extending the deadline for eligible hospitals and CAHs that are electronically submitting clinical quality measures (CQMs) for meaningful use and the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program. Hospitals now have until December 31, 2014 to submit their eCQM data via Quality Net.
It is important to note that this extension does not impact the deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.
CMS has provided the following meaningful use attestation tips for EHs and CAHs:
– Consider logging on to use the attestation system during non-peak hours, such as evenings and weekends
– Log on to the registration and attestation system now and ensure that your information is up to date and begin entering your 2014 data
– If you experience attestation problems, call the EHR Incentive Program Help Desk and report the problem
