The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) announced the final rule in the latter half of 2019. This expressed major changes to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) that may affect your practice this reporting year. One of these being a change within the Promoting Interoperability category. Now, clinicians are required to utilize 2015 Edition CEHRT EHR for a continuous period of 90 days.
What is 2015 Edition CEHRT?
The Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) started the Health IT Certification Program. It is completely voluntary and up to the software vendor whether or not to seek certification. It features requirements that your software needs in order to receive certification. These established standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria have been adopted by the Secretary. Once the software receives approval, this means that the software functionality meets the ever evolving clinical improvement and care activities required to be successful in CMS’s QPP.
Why is it important?
The 2015 Edition CEHRT holds value and importance for all medical practices. It performs functions that help us to further population health initiatives by enabling a seamless exchange of electronic communications between systems. APIs require that EHR systems harness the capability of interfacing to allow a multitude of other systems to access data pools. The use of a 2015 Edition CEHRT promotes the exchange of health data throughout a patient’s healthcare team. This ensures that nothing gets lost along the way and that the best possible health outcomes are achieved.
Why is it required to report for the Promoting Interoperability category?
Though CMS has not verbally stated a reason as to why they are requiring 2015 Edition CEHRT, one can infer why this change is being made for 2019. This performance category drives its roots into promoting patient engagement and the successful exchange of electronic communication. The Promoting Interoperability category’s initiatives and the initiatives of 2015 Edition CEHRT go hand in hand to make the requirement for 2015 a logical shift.
As you move throughout the 2019 reporting year, try not to focus on the hardships that change may bring. If you are not already harnessing the capabilities of a 2015 Edition CEHRT EHR, consider upgrading your system or making a change. This new regulation just makes this shift a bit more urgent for you and your colleagues.
Looking to harness the power of 2015 Edition CEHRT? MicroMD can help. Call us today to make the switch to MicroMD or visit our website at micromd.com.
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