EHR Group Recommends Changing Meaningful Use Reporting

The Electronic Health Records Association wants to modify the reporting process used by healthcare providers to qualify for stage two of the meaningful use initiative.

Under the the 2009 HITECH Act, physicians are eligible to receive up to $44,000 in incentives from Medicare for meaningful use of electronic health records starting in 2011.

Reporting periods should be broken up for facilities to turn over compliance documents to the federal government, the EHR Association recommends.

Instead of a once-a-year report, providers would file every three or six months, which would give them more time to adapt to new systems and get upgrades working properly, said Mark Segal, co-chair of EHR Association’s public policy leadership work group.

EHA’s decision coincides with a host of other organizations such as the College of Health Information Management Executives which suggested introducing a 90-day reporting period for stage two.

Source: www.blog.executivebiz.com; Gino Troiani; May 8, 2012.