Bob Oakley Consults: CMS National Provider Call on MU Stage 2

Today I sat in on the CMS National Provider Call titled “Proposed Rule for Stage 2 Meaningful Use Requirements.” In spite of the name it was an interesting call. Below are a few of the things I took away from the call and links to the CMS presentation and future audio file location. For good measure, at the end are some links to related articles. Enjoy.

My take aways:

CMS is asking for comments on the definition of hospital based eligible professional (EP). They asked for comments on situations where an Eligible Professional (EP) who is classified as hospital-based might still be providing their own Certified EHR Technology. Currently, in this situation the EP would not qualify for incentive payments. (slide 8)

They are looking to make the Stage 2 Proposed Rule the Stage 2 Final Rule in Summer 2012, with a proposed start date for Stage 2 of 1/1/14 for EPs. (slide 15)

Whenever an EP starts with Stage 1, they will have 2 years on Stage 1, 2 years on Stage 2, then Stage 3. Each EP's timeline is based on the year they start the program. (slide 16)

Starting in 2014, exclusions won’t be counted towards meeting one of the menu objectives. (slide 18)

Two revised objectives depend on patient participation. The first is an objective that more than 10% of an EP's patients actually access online health information. The second is that more than 10% of an EP’s patients send secure messages to their EP. It should be an interesting debate on this, not sure if these will remain intact. If they do, looks like a good opportunity for CRM experts to get involved. (slides 20-21)

Link to presentation

Link to audio and transcript when available

Other analysis/commentaries on Stage 2: