It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
Karen Perry
The Office of Management and Budget announced it has received for review the final rules for meaningful use Stage 3 and program modifications for 2015 through 2017, Healthcare IT News reports (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 9/4).
Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
In March, HHS released a proposed rule for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program.
Under the proposal, all eligible professionals beginning in 2018 would report on Stage 3 of the meaningful use program regardless of their previous participation. Providers would have the option to move to Stage 3 starting in 2017 (iHealthBeat, 7/24).
In addition, the proposed rule would "change the EHR reporting period so that all providers would report under a full calendar year timeline," except for those attesting to the Medicaid meaningful use program for the first time. The proposed rule also would raise the threshold for several program requirements and would require eligible professionals to fulfill two of three options for ensuring patient engagement (iHealthBeat, 3/20).
In April, CMS released a proposed rule that would shorten Medicare and Medicaid meaningful use attestation for eligible professionals and hospitals to a 90-day period in 2015.
In addition, the proposed rule would:
Several hospital groups have raised concerns about CMS' delay in finalizing the proposed changes, noting that requirements related to mandatory electronic prescribing and public health reporting "would be virtually impossible for hospitals to accommodate" because release of the final rule has been delayed (iHealthBeat, 8/7).
The Medical Group Management Association also has voiced concerns about the delay and urged CMS to extend the 2015 reporting period for the meaningful use program (iHealthBeat, 9/2).
In a statement, CMS said, "We appreciate provider interest in the EHR Incentive Programs and in our final regulations in particular... CMS intends to finalize a set of requirements that addresses attestation deadlines and reduces the overall reporting burden on providers and provides flexibility for the reporting periods in 2015."
It is unclear when the final rules will be released. According to FierceEMR, OMB usually has 90 days to complete a review, but the review period can be extended (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 9/4).
It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
I just want to tell you that I value people relations more than money. I remember how you were friendly and helpful not going against policies and contractual obligations at the same time, not using your power to make us feel stupid and small. It was a very rare and big experience for me. Really. I will always remember this.
The Usability People are all individuals that you can become friends with very easily. They have a lot of different interests and are a pleasure to work with. I was writing a PRD/MRD for a billing solution and worked with The Usability People in defining the user interface. They are receptive to ideas and are able to mold the user interface from an end-user's perspective. I really liked the idea of putting end-user photograph & short biography around the office to help understand the users