This week marks the first opportunity for healthcare providers who have signed up for the electronic health records incentive program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to begin the process of attestation. While there may be much anxiety among health IT managers stemming from the process, there is also significant excitement that the incentive program will finally go live.
CMS began allowing eligible providers to complete the attestation process on April 18. To participate in the program they must be able to demonstrate that their electronic health records systems meet the government's meaningful use standards, which ensure that the technology is being used to support quality improvements.
Once providers have completed the attestation process, they may become eligible to receive up to $44,000 in incentive payments if they are participating in the Medicare program and up to $63,000 for the Medicaid program.
These financial incentives have made the programs the subjects of much anticipation within the healthcare IT world. Now that they are here, professionals are going to great lengths to ensure that their organizations are ready to meet the meaningful use requirements.
Todd Shore, a manager for health IT at Deloitte Consulting, which advises practices on the transition to electronic health records, told Government Health IT that his clients are currently running through mock attestations so that there is no chance of any errors occurring during the actual process.
"That means that we are going through line by line, measure by measure, to make sure that if they were ever audited by the government around meaningful use they could produce and clearly articulate the criteria, as well as the evidence in which they met the criteria during the defined period of time," he told the news source.
This type of preparation may make the actual attestation process much simpler and more streamlined, allowing providers to ensure that they will qualify for the full amount of incentive payments for which they are eligible.
It has already helped some providers attain full certification with program. For example, the Indian Health Services recently became the first federal agency to have their electronic health records program meet all the meaningful use requirements.
The announcement that the agency has reached meaningful marks a milestone in the nation's pursuit of a fully networked healthcare system. It is a organization that is responsible for treating millions of Native Americans across 35 states. Their efforts to attain meaningful use show that the certification may be attainable for smaller providers.
"The Indian Health Service is very proud to be the first federal agency to earn this certification, which is based on industry standards," said Yvette Roubideaux, director of the agency. "Our certified electronic health record will help us provide quality health care delivery to patients in the Indian health system."
She added that money gained through the incentive payments would be put back in the system to provide a higher quality of care for Native Americans who receive healthcare from the agency. Furthermore, the fact that the system's doctors are using electronic health records according to the government's meaningful use standards indicates that quality could soon improve.
While some providers have expressed concern that the government's timetable for adoption of electronic health records is too aggressive, the beginning of the attestation process has been met with mostly positive and anticipatory sentiments. The beginning of attestation marks an important milestone in the nation's pursuit of a networked healthcare system.