Starting January 5th, 2015 about 257,000 Medicare eligible professionals (EPs) will face meaningful use penalties, according to CMS officials. EPs must successfully attest for Meaningful Use on or before Oct. 1, 2014 in order to avoid a penalty.
The announcement also revealed during a press call on Wednesday afternoon revealed of those 257,000 EPs identified, 28,000 will face a 2 percent penalty for failing to meet the e-prescribing requirement. Additionally, more than 200 eligible
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Meaningful Use | Policy, News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
CMS: Meaningful Use Payments Tops $25.7B
As of December 1st, CMS has paid more than $25.7 billion in meaningful use payments to eligible hospitals and professionals, according to the latest CMS data. Elisabeth Myers, head of CMS' Office of eHealth Standards and Services made announcement on Tuesday during a Health IT policy Committee meeting.
MU Registation and Payment Data
CMS data reported 505,641 active participants in the meaningful use incentive program through October 2014 broken down by:
October-14
Program To
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CMS Extends Meaningful Use Attestation Deadline to 12/31
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
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Physicians: The Omnipotent Consumer of EHRs
According to the American Medical Association, there were approximately 685,000 physicians in patient care, post-residency, not employed by the federal government, in 2012. 60% of these physicians practiced in independent private practice, and 84% were working in small to medium size practices. Assuming that the trend to employment of doctors by health systems continued unabated to this day, over half of practicing physicians are still in private practice and the overwhelming majority
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Hospital CFO Faces 5 Years for $800k Meaningful Use Fraud
Joe White, the former CFO of Texas-based Shelby Regional Medical Center has pleaded guilty to meaningful use fraud and aggravated identity. White falsely attested to meaningful use by using another person’s name and information without that individual’s consent or authorization. The false attestation resulted in CMS paying Shelby Regional $785,655 in January 2013. Medicaid and Medicare EHR incentive programs paid hospitals operated Dr. Mahmood, including Shelby Regional $16,794,462.66 for fiscal
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Meaningful Use Audits Could Return $33M in Incentive Payments
Meaningful Use audits could recover $33M in EHR incentives, according to data from the HHS published in a recent Health Security Solutions infographic below. Although the precise reason for failure is not included in the dataset, there is reason to believe from strong anecdotal evidence that failure to conduct an adequate risk analysis is the most common reason entities fail their MU audits.
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AMA Policy Calls for Removal of Meaningful Use Penalties
The American Medical Association (AMA) approved a new policy urging the calling for Meaningful Use penalties to be halted. The AMA has joined other healthcare leaders and policymakers in urging CMS to to add more flexibility to the Meaningful Use program and shorten the reporting period to help physicians avoid penalties. According to new attestation numbers, only 2 percent of physicians have successfully demonstrated MU Stage 2 requirements.
"The AMA has been calling for policymakers to
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Less Than 17% of Hospitals Meet Meaningful Use Stage 2
Less than 17 percent of hospitals have demonstrated Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements, according to the latest CMS data. As of September 30, less than 38 percent of eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs) have met either Stage of Meaningful Use in 2014. CMS has paid out more than $25 billion incentive payments to eligible hospitals and professionals participating in the meaningful use program.
The disappointing meaningful use data numbers reflects how hospitals are
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Like Scorpions, Closed EHR Systems Cause Paralysis
Take a step back from the challenges that surround health information technology (HIT) interoperability and you will recognize that market forces and a desperately fragmented health care system make hospitals and vendors act the way we do.
It calls to mind the fable of the scorpion and the frog, which is worth revisiting.
Wanting to cross a river, a scorpion spies a frog in the water and asks for a ride to the other side. Naturally afraid of being stung and killed, the frog hesitates, but is
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AMA Reveals Blueprint for Future of Meaningful Use Program
On Tuesday, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a blueprint for the future of the Meaningful Use program, including Stage 3, quality reporting, and EHR vendor certification requirements. In a 30 page letter submitted to the CMS Administrator Marilyn B. Tavenner and ONC National Coordinator Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH,AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD states:
"Since the creation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Meaningful Use (MU) program in 2009, it is clear that physician use
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