AHA Urges CMS to Quickly Correct EHR Incentive Program Claims Error

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The American Hospital Association has urged CMS to quickly address a claims processing limitation that inappropriately excludes certain physicians from the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs.

The affected physicians are those who provide services in the outpatient departments of critical access hospitals that bill Medicare for their outpatient department services using the "Method 2" billing approach. According to a letter written by the AHA, due to system constraints, CMS does not include Method 2 claims when it identifies which physicians are eligible for incentive programs, meaning physicians are being inappropriately excluded from the incentive programs.

According to the letter, if the error is not corrected quickly, Method 2 physicians would become eligible only the year before penalties begin. Physicians and other eligible professionals had to first attest to meaningful use in 2012 to fully benefit from the incentives. According to the AHA, waiting until 2014 would reduce currently excluded physicians' incentives by almost half.

More Articles on Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs:

Deadline Nears for Physician EHR Reporting, Attestation
ONC Creates Meaningful Use Dashboard With EHR Incentive Program Payment Data
CMS Releases Interim Final Rule for Changes to EHR Incentive Program, Certification Rule

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