The incentive program for meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) systems has stopped dispensing bonuses to physicians as far as Medicare is concerned, but not so with Medicaid.
And the government has made it easier for physicians to earn meaningful-use bonuses under Medicaid next year.
For one thing, physicians and other clinicians won’t have to demonstrate to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that they met the requirements of the program every single day of 2018 as originally planned. CMS is shrinking the reporting period to 90 days, according to final regulations that the agency issued last month.
In addition, clinicians will be able to achieve Medicaid meaningful use of EHRs in 2018 if their software is certified for 2014 or 2015 as opposed to just 2015 certification. A combination of EHR technologies, with some of it certified for 2014 and some of it for 2015, also works.
Since its inception in 2011, the meaningful-use program has operated on the two separate tracks of Medicare and Medicaid. Far more clinicians have received incentive payments through Medicare than Medicaid — 312,000 to 198,000, respectively, through June 2017, according to CMS. The agency also has dinged tens of thousands of clinicians with Medicare pay cuts for failing to demonstrate meaningful use through that program or Medicaid. However, clinicians who participate in Medicaid, but not Medicare, haven’t been subject to a penalty.
The Medicare meaningful-use program is winding down. It paid out its last bonuses in 2016. The last year for the Medicare penalty is 2018, when it will be 3%. Clinicians will feel its sting for failing to demonstrate meaningful use 2 years earlier. Meanwhile, clinicians no longer struggle to earn its bonus or avoid its penalty because the Medicare meaningful-use program has been swallowed up in a reimbursement system created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
MACRA replaced Medicare’s fee-for-service system with the Quality Payment Program (QPP), which took effect this year. One track of QPP, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, has a set of measures called Advancing Care Information that incorporate portions of Medicare meaningful use.
In contrast, the Medicaid meaningful-use program will continue paying out bonuses through 2021. A clinician can earn a maximum of $63,750 over 6 years, more than the $44,000 over 5 years available under Medicare (the latter became subject to a sequestration cut of 2%). In 2016, some 62,000 clinicians received $794 million in Medicaid incentive payments, according to CMS.
More information about the Medicaid meaningful-use program is available on the CMS website.
Follow Robert Lowes on Twitter @LowesRobert
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