NRHA applauds CMS for reconsidering meaningful-use requirements

By: Alan Morgan | 1/29/15

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In response to concerns from the National Rural Health Association and other provider advocacy groups, CMS will reconsider its policies on meaningful-use (MU) requirements for providers. CMS Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway, MD, announced today that CMS will:

• Realign hospital electronic health records (EHR) reporting periods to the calendar year to allow eligible hospitals more time to incorporate 2014 edition software into their workflows and to better align with other CMS quality programs.
• Modify other aspects of the program to match long-term goals, reduce complexity and lessen providers’ reporting burdens.
• Shorten the EHR reporting period in 2015 to 90 days to accommodate these changes.

NRHA has been working with Congress to initiate legislation that would accomplish these goals. NRHA thanks members of Congress who stood with us in protecting rural providers who would have not met onerous 2015 Stage II MU guidelines, which included a full year of reporting requirements. NRHA will continue to monitor these details as the rule comes out this spring. Conway will speak at NRHA’s 26th annual Rural Health Policy Institute next week in D.C. on this and other important news from CMS. There is still time to register for this premier rural policy event.