2017 EHR Incentive Program Details for Hospitals

November 8, 2017

Written by Patty Kosednar

Here are the details for eligible Hospitals attesting to either or both the Medicaid and Medicare EHR Incentive Programs for calendar year 2017.

2017 Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Summary

• Hospitals can choose to report requirements for Modified Stage 2 or Stage 3 (your choice).
• No alternate exclusions are available for Modified Stage 2.
• You must use 2015 or a combination of 2014/2015 certified EHR technology to report to Stage 3, 2014 certified EHR for Modified Stage 2.
• Core Objectives: the 2017 reporting period for core objectives (measures) will again be a continuous 90-day period within the 2017 calendar year.
• Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs): the 2017 reporting period differs based by program and how you attest (more info on this below).
• You may report to both Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive programs if you are dually eligible.
• The MU objectives and performance requirements will be different between the Medicaid program and the Medicare program (more info on this below).
• Medicare EHR Incentive Program attestation will be done via QualityNet. Hospitals reporting to the Medicaid program will report via their State Level Registry. Read more about this in the blog post dated 11/6.

EH Medicaid EHR Incentive Program

2017 Modified Stage 2 requirements for EHs are the same nine objectives and performance criteria as they were for 2016 except for the following:

• Objective 8, Measure 2, Patient Electronic Access: For an EHR reporting period in 2017, more than five percent of unique patients discharged from the inpatient or emergency department (POS 21 or 23) of an eligible hospital or CAH (or patient authorized representative) view, download or transmit to a third party their health information during the EHR reporting period.

If you are interested in reporting to Stage 3, here is a link to the requirements: CMS Medicaid EH 2017 Stage 3 requirements.

EH Medicare (CMS) EHR Incentive Program

Medicare EPs will be reporting via the MIPS program; however, Medicare or dual eligible EHs still need to report meaningful use to CMS via the Medicare EHR Incentive program.

The 2017 Modified Stage 2 requirements and performance criteria for the EH Medicare MU program is the same as 2016 except for:

• Removal of the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) objectives and measures.
• Reduction of the threshold for View, Download or Transmit (VDT) under the Patient Electronic Access Objective to at least one unique patient (or patient-authorized representative).

If you are interested in reporting to Stage 3, here is a link to the requirements: CMS Medicare EH 2017 Stage 3 requirements

2017 Clinical Quality Measure Requirements (CQMs) (for both programs)

1. For hospitals also reporting eCQMs (electronic clinical quality measures) via the CMS Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program, the four eCQMs you report via the CMS IQR program will count for the Medicare EHR Incentive program*
2. For hospitals not reporting to the CMS IQR program but submitting their CQMs electronically for the Medicare EHR Incentive program, you will need to report on four eCQMs. The reporting period is one self-selected calendar quarter of data*
3. For hospitals not reporting CQMs electronically or not participating in the IQR program, for the Medicare EHR Incentive program you will need to report on 16 CQMs. The reporting period is a full year of data (CY2017), unless it is your first year of participation in the program, then the reporting period is 90 days*

*Some Medicaid requirements are determined by your State Medicaid office, so you’ll want to double check with your State Medicaid office to verify their specific criteria on CQM reporting. The above items have been confirmed as accurate by the Montana State Medicaid office.

2017 Tasks for EH Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program

1. Confirm and document Medicaid Eligibility
2. Confirm and document your EHR certification
3. Choose Stage to report (Stage 2 or Stage 3)
4. Confirm how you will report CQMs (see options above)
5. Run MU Objective and CQM data reports
6. Work on data entry/workflows for measures not hitting needed thresholds
7. Perform tasks and create documentation for the “yes/no” core objectives
8. Eligible hospitals and CAHs attesting to Medicare who are new to the QNet system need to enroll to create a QNet account and select the MU option
9. Eligible hospitals and CAHs attesting to Medicare who are existing QNet users need to select the MU option in their QNet accounts
10. Verify all SLR/NLR logins and passwords (Medicaid only or dually eligible hospitals)
11. Add/update NLR registration profile (if any changes occurred – Medicaid only or dually eligible hospitals)
12. Meet all Core objectives
13. Finalize all MU audit documentation
14. Attest 2017 Medicare EHR incentive program data via QualityNet (Medicare hospitals)
15. Attest 2017 Medicaid EHR Incentive program data via SLR (Medicaid only or dually eligible hospitals)

See more information on the requirements and methods for submitting data (QualityNet, SLR, etc.) for 2017 in our blog post from 11/6.

If you have any questions, or run into issues with any of the meaningful use objectives and would like help, please use the “Leave a Reply” section below, or email Patty Kosednar directly with your questions or comments.

Other Resource Links
CMS 2017 MU Requirements
See all 2017 MU Blog Posts
See our MIPS Blog

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