On Friday, February 7, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took steps to address challenges with the Meaningful Use Attestation process.
Providers have been commenting for the past several weeks about the issues they have encountered with trying to attest their Medicare EHR Program participation. CMS appeared to recognize the issues that providers have been experiencing and has had an announcement on its EHR Registration and Attestation website that stated, “due to the large volume of providers attesting, please consider attesting during non-peak hours to avoid system delays.”
For Eligible Professionals, CMS extended the deadline by one month for EPs to attest to the 2013 Meaningful Use reporting year.
CMS noted that it is giving this extension to allow providers more time to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2013 program year, as well as avoid the 2015 payment adjustment. To meet the new program deadline, eligible professionals must attest by 11:59 pm ET on March 31, 2014.
For Eligible Hospitals that have experienced attestation challenges, CMS offered assistance by providing a means for hospitals to contact CMS so they can submit their attestation retroactively. Hospitals must contact CMS by March 15, 2014, to discuss their retroactive submission and to participate for the 2013 program year. Eligible hospitals must contact CMS at EH2013Extension@Provider-Resources.com by 11:59 pm ET on March 15, 2014, in order to participate for the 2013 program year. CMS is planning to reach out to the point person that each hospital designates to provide them additional instructions regarding their eligible hospital 2013 attestation submission.
