Registration is open for providers wishing to qualify for meaningful use of EHR in 2011. You must have 3 months of meaninful use to hit the deadline. If you have not yet registered, then visit and register for the MEDICARE incentive. This must be done for EACH provider and PECOS has to be up-to-date for it to work.
Also keep in mind that providers getting e-Rx and PQRI incentive money can’t get EHR incentives at the same time. If you are getting other incentives, you will want to wait until next year.
Visit https://ehrincentives.cms.gov/hitech/login.action to get signed up.
You will need to have a CCHIT ID number for your practice management/EHR software to completely register and be ready to attest.
You can get your certified EHR software ID number by visiting this site (for ambulatory practice types) and searching for your software by name or vendor:
http://onc-chpl.force.com/ehrcert/EHRProductSearch?setting=Ambulatory
You add the product you have to your shopping cart and click on the button that says “Get CMS EHR certification ID.”
The site will generate an ID number that you enter into your Registration site.
All 15 Core Measures must be met (or excluded from) and 5 of the 10 Menu Set Measures must be met or excluded from to have Meaningful Use (MU) of EHR during the 90-day period.
You have until February 29, 2012 (Leap Day) to attest to MU in 2011 for a 90-day period.
Incentive money is capped at $44,000 per provider or no more than five years of the incentive. The last money will be paid in 2016.
2014 is the last year to register and start participating in the EHR incentive. In 2015 Medicare payment adjustments (reductions) begin for hospitals and providers who are not meeting MU of EHR.
According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:
For the first year for which an EP applies for and receives an incentive payment, the EHR Reporting Period is 90 days for any continuous period beginning and ending within the year. For every year after the first payment year, the EHR reporting period is the entire year.
· A Payment Year equals a Calendar Year (CY). Incentive payments for this program end after 2016.
· A qualifying EP will receive an incentive payment equal to 75 percent of Medicare allowable charges for covered professional services furnished by the EP in a payment year, subject to maximum payments.
· In general, a qualifying EP can receive an annual incentive payment as high as $18,000 if their first payment year is 2011 or 2012. Otherwise, the annual incentive payment limits in the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth years are $15,000, $12,000, $8,000, $4000, and $2,000 respectively. In general, the maximum amount of total incentive payments that an EP can receive under the Medicare program is $44,000.
