Have You Attested To Meaningful Use In 2015?
While there has been much discussion of meaningful use for 2016, make sure you have finalized your plan for the 2015 reporting period, which would have been any consecutive 90 day-period in 2015.
As you read this, you should know whether you achieved meaningful use in 2015 or not. Ideally, your electronic health record (EHR) has a way to run a report of the 10 Modified Stage 2 objectives so you can determine whether you achieved meaningful use or not. If you are unsure about this, I suggest asking your EHR vendor for help. Keep in mind that for 2015 (not for 2016), you can claim an exemption to objective 10. This allows you to attest to having achieved meaningful use if you met the other nine objectives.
If you did meet meaningful use requirements for 2015, you should attest to this on the appropriate Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Web site (https://ehrincentives.cms.gov/hitech/login.action ). You may be entitled to an incentive payment based on the timing of your first year of successful attestation. The deadline for attesting to meaningful use for 2015 is March 11, 2016.
If you did not achieve meaningful use in 2015, you should apply for the exemption based on the late announcement of the meaningful use final rule on October 6, 2015 that I referenced in my Podiatry Today DPM Blog post last month (https://www.podiatrytoday.com/blogged/why-february-29-critical-date-achieving-meaningful-use-incentives ). It is now easy to do this. The application to apply for the exemption is this PDF document: https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/HardshipApplication.pdf . I suggest you use reason “2.2.d.”
Instructions for completing this document are here:
The deadline for submitting this exemption for 2015 is now July 1, 2016. There is no reason to delay. You should know right now whether you achieved meaningful use in 2015. I suggest completing this form and submitting it now if you did not achieve meaningful use in 2015.
