March 2017~

In a letter (pdf) to CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, MGMA and the American Medical Association (AMA) joined by numerous care provider groups, state medical societies, and other medical organizations, have requested a deferment for the required use of 2015 Edition Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) or Medicaid Meaningful Use (MU) Program.

In the letter, the medical groups state that few vendors have fully upgraded their EHR systems and that the majority of certified products are from a limited number of vendors. Of the over 3,700 products currently 2014 certified, just 54 to date have been recertified to meet the more stringent 2015 CEHRT requirements.

“Requiring physicians to upgrade to 2015 Edition technology by 2018 limits choice by forcing physicians to select a system from approximately one percent of existing products,” the groups noted in the letter, explaining the concern that group practices may be forced to incur significant cost to switch vendors, utilize a system that is not suitable for their specialty or patient population due to the tight timeline, or be subject to unfair financial penalties because vendors have not certified their 2015 products in a timely manner.

The medical groups have asked for the compliance deadline to be postponed until January 2019, in hopes that the additional time will ensure clinicians can transition smoothly to the new technology and recommends that use of 2015 CEHRT remain voluntary until such technology is widely available until that time.

 

Source(s): MGMA Washington Connection, March 2017; HealthcareDIVE, March 2017;