Optometry

All eligible professionals are allowed to use stage 1 meaningful use requirements for at least two payment years. So, while stage 2 rules go into effect in 2014 for those eligible professionals in at least their third year of meaningful use, others still get to use stage 1 requirements. This means that if your first payment year is going to be 2013, you'll use stage 1 in 2013 and in 2014. Many of the stage 1 core and menu objectives are retained for stage 2, and new measures were added; the fin...

I'd like to touch on a few of the changes that I mentioned briefly in my last blog and provide a bit more detail for you. Even though the stage 2 final rule dictates that stage 2 will not begin until 2014, there are a few things in the final rule that will affect you in 2013. So that you may begin preparing for next year, I'd like to discuss those items. First and foremost, those who attest for the 2013 payment year will avoid the payment penalty in 2015. If you don't attest in 2013, your Me...

After much anticipation and conjecture, the final rule for stage 2 of meaningful use was released on Aug. 23 by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator. So, what was included in the final rule? I'll give you a snapshot below and then blog here in the coming weeks and provide more detail about some of the key points: As anticipated, stage 2 is delayed from 2013 until 2014. Providers who first attested 2011 using stage 1 can wait until 2...

For those of you whose first payment year for the EHR incentive is 2012, you're getting close to the final 90-day period available to you. In your first payment year, you have to be a meaningful user for 90 consecutive days. The last 90 days of 2012 begins on Oct. 3, less than 60 days away. So, if you still haven't started your MU reporting period, you need to get busy or you risk losing out on 2012 being your first year. If you miss out on 2012, the total amount payable to you (for beginning in...

I'm sure that most of you answered, "Absolutely," to the question above. I want to challenge you about your answer.  Just because you have a web site, a computer system to manage the basic functions of your practice and maybe also have implemented an EHR system, you probably still aren't using technology as effectively as you could or should. In fact, your viability in the future probably depends on you becoming a much better user of technology. Let me ask you a few specific questions that ...

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services still hasn’t released the final rule for stage 2 of meaningful use. I've blogged here extensively about what the proposed rule included and the likelihood that many of the major provisions will make it into the final rule. I'm hearing that the final rule should be released early in July, so I will provide you with a summary as soon as it becomes available. The EHR incentive has been available for almost a year and a half (eligible profess...

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld in its entirety the Affordable Care Act. The court ruled 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal wing. Justice Roberts in the opinion noted that the individual mandate – the core provision of reform that would pay for many of its initiatives – “is not a valid exercise of the Commerce Clause,” which covers congressional ability to regulate commerce. However, the court added that Congress has the authority to implement the m...

The transition for 5010, which was officially required as of Jan. 1, 2012, has been fraught with problems and has caused financial difficulties for many practices. Because of the slow pace of 5010 preparation (mostly payers), the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a 90-day discretionary enforcement period from Jan. 1 to March 31. During this period, 5010 errors would not cause a claim to be rejected or denied. Well, 90 days proved to be too little time, so the discretionar...

In January, a little-known change to the EHR incentive attestation portal was introduced and is causing grief for some eye care practitioners who are attesting. This change already has some of my clients scrambling because they clicked "yes" without really knowing what they were agreeing to. The change introduced is an invitation to participate in the Physician Quality Reporting System-Medicare EHR Incentive Pilot. Beginning in 2012, eligible professionals may satisfy the meaningful use objecti...

Many people have been very confused about the requirement in meaningful use for doing a security risk analysis and other HIPAA-related compliance issues and have looked for resources to help them. In a release well-timed with my topics in this blog, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology recently announced the release of its Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information. This guide, released by the ONC's Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, is desig...