You can hear the sigh of relief—albeit mixed with a bit of uncertainty-driven anxiety—as physicians await publication of the final rule that will modify meaningful use in 2014. By relaxing the timeline, the government has finally acknowledged what so many stakeholders have been arguing for a while: Stage 2 and upgrading to a 2014 Certified EHR simply required too much of providers, too quickly. The paltry number of Stage 2 attestations to date is evidence enough—by May, only 50 physicians had attested to Stage 2; by June, just 447 had succeeded; and by July (mid-way into the year), the number had reached only 972. To put these numbers in context, over 378,000 providers have earned EHR incentives for Stage 1.
The major challenges that prompted the government’s reconsideration of the meaningful use timeline are reflected in the 1,184 comments submitted to CMS—some of which express frustration with the demands of the program in general, but almost all of which wholeheartedly support the proposed changes. (My comments, submitted on behalf of SRS physicians, are available here.) The following are the most common challenges cited:
- Availability of 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) – But it’s not just about the products that are not yet certified or about vendors with insufficient resources to keep up with the demand for implementations. Many of the products that have been certified were rushed out under overly aggressive and unrealistic timeframes, which has left physicians faced with not-ready-for-primetime software.
- Overestimation of market readiness for interoperability – Sufficient infrastructure is not in place yet, so even physicians who have implemented the DIRECT messaging capability cannot find enough “trading partners” with whom they can connect to share information.
- Dependence on non-participating parties – It takes an extraordinary amount of effort to successfully coordinate with labs, radiology providers, long-term care facilities, and registries, who are not required to conform to standards promulgated under meaningful use.
- Reluctance of patients to embrace portal utilization – The two portal measures (patients accessing clinical information and sending messages to physicians) are cited by many commenters as the major obstacle to MU success. Changing patient behavior in this regard is turning out to be even harder to accomplish than previously anticipated.
- Excessive workflow challenges – Meaningful use necessitates operational changes to practice workflows that are, in the words of one commenter, “daunting, at best.”
The options proposed in the rule are summarized in a handy CMS Decision Tool and include reporting Stage 1 again, instead of Stage 2, and attesting using either a 2011 or 2014 CEHRT.
So what can physicians expect and what would be a good strategy to pursue as they wait for the final rule? CMS is promising—or at least hoping—to publish the final rule in early September. The 60-day comment period ended on July 21, and CMS is obligated to read and consider all of the comments before issuing the final rule. However, I think it is reasonable for physicians to assume that the final rule will be at least as flexible as the proposed rule—maybe even more so. CMS has been asked by many commenters to definitively spell out the conditions under which physicians could avail themselves of the various reporting options, which would address the uncertainty created by the lack of clarity in the proposed rule.
In the meantime, physicians should plan to attest for any quarter during which they have met all of the requirements under one of the options provided for in the proposed rule. It can even be a quarter that precedes the publication of the final rule. They should then aggressively turn their attention to upgrading to 2014 CEHRT—if they have not done so already—and to preparing for Stage 2. Remember: as flexible as the rule may be, it only offers a 3-month reprieve. Physicians who were to be at Stage 2 in 2014 must now be ready to start a full year of reporting on Stage 2, using a 2014 CEHRT, on January 1, 2015.
