Bill to allow new Meaningful Use exemptions introduced
By - Representative Diane Black, a Republican from Tennessee, has introduced new legislation that would add exemptions for Medicare providers interested in participating in the EHR Incentive Program by attesting to meaningful use. The bill, entitled the EHR Improvements Act, would allow solo practitioners to apply for a hardship exemption because of limited time or resources and allow physicians who will be eligible to take Social Security by 2015 to receive a retirement exemption of no more than three years. The exemptions would protect certain physicians from the Medicare penalties slated to take effect in 2015.
“The EHR Improvements Act removes these barriers to participation by focusing on the key issues that eligible physicians have said make it difficult to comply and hinder their ability provide high quality care for their patients,” Rep. Black’s office said in a summary of the legislation, according to BNA. “This bill specifically addresses the problems that physicians have addressed with CMS but have thus far- gone unanswered. EHR technology should be encouraged, but not without implementing these much needed reforms.”
Black intends to address the concerns of independent physicians with limited income potential and those physicians who are near retirement who find the nearly $50,000 in average EHR implementation costs to be an unattractive prospect so late in their careers. Without meeting meaningful use by 2015, non-participating providers will be subject to a 1% reimbursement cut every year, up to 5% of their Medicare payments. “Specialty-led registries offer these physicians the much needed autonomy to design their own quality measures, and would be compared to the care delivered by their peers and not an egregious standard made by bureaucrats in Washington.”
Rep. Black has been actively involved in trying to improve the EHR Incentive Program, and has received praise and support from a number of physician organizations. “[We] appreciate your leadership on these issues and look forward to working together to ensure that small practices are better able to adopt EHRs, improving the quality, safety and efficiency of care,” acknowledged a December 2012 letter from twenty-one specialist societies.
Additional improvements to the EHR Incentive Program would include designating rural health clinics as eligible providers and adjusting the timing of the 2015 penalties to be less unfair to physicians.
