If you haven’t already registered and if you are not meaningfully using your EHR 2011 is no longer an option for you. You needed to report for 90 days this year and you would have to have registered and been using by the beginning of October to qualify for the 2011 payouts.
Is it worth it? Really?
We can’t speak for each of you, but I can direct you to this nifty article “CMS pays out nearly $90M in MU incentives in September” at HealtcareITNews.
This article gives some interesting statistics as well- As of their September analysis, 8,397 eligible providers had attested to achieving meaningful use. CMS successfully verified 8,001 of them to have done so, and all of this out of a total of about 550, 000 eligible providers. If you eligible providers do not lay claim to the money set aside for this, the government will only give it away to someone else, on some other project.
But what about my $44,000? I’ve been working on getting, hooking up, learning, and/or using my EHR….How much is left for me?
All is not lost- you can still work on getting the entire $44,000 possible, if you register and prepare to report on your meaningful use in 2012. However, you do need to prep now, because you must report for the entire year next year, not just for 90 days, like this year. Get up & running and register, prepare now for January 2012!
How & when can I sign up?
Per CMS:” We encourage providers to register for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program(s) as soon as possible to avoid payment delays.” And, “You can register before you have a certified EHR. Register even if you do not have an enrollment record in PECOS (which is required for all hospitals and Medicare eligible professionals).”
Want to know more? Check out the Registration information on CMS here.
How do I know if I’m eligible?
CMS has the scoop & a nifty walk though here.
What will I have to do to attest?
I recommend going to CMS and using “The Meaningful Use Attestation Calculator”
Other questions or concerns?
Look to the left link list on any of the CMS pages from above and you will find all of the CMS sections of good info for you to peruse.
Don’t have an EHR yet, but want to know more?
Easy call us at 1-800-645-0955 or e-mail us at sales2@geniussolutions.com and we’ll hook you up with an EHR, training, support, and any of the other stuff you might need to qualify for and get paid your stimulus $$$$s.
2 comments:
I received an e-mail that asked about the "having to report for the entire year in 2012"... And that it was only for those who had attested for the 90-days in 2011. I started doing some additional research and found some notes and articles that said if you were newly attesting (for the 1st time) in 2012 you would only have to report for 90 consecutive days. I could not however find any definitive answer on any OFFICIAL web site - like CMS or the ONC web sites - even with a search. And there was even less information about additional years. The meaningful use measures and reports are going to get more stringent as the government moves from phase 1 to phase 2 implementation by 2013... and then on to phase 3 by the end. If anyone finds any Official information, please post it or send in the link to newsletter2010 @ geniussolutions . com
Thanks - the Genius News editor
Thanks IMB...they found the info on the CMS website and sent me a pdf posted here that you can look at and work back to CMS.
From this document it also looks to me that no matter what year you first attest (this year, next year, or 2014) that you only have to report for 90-consecutive days your first year. Don't forget that whichever year you begin, you will be subject to the rules and standards in place at that time and they are working on the phase II standards right now, which will not be as easy or forgiving as the phase I standards, etc.
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