Our Take on the Recent Meaningful Use News

We live and breathe Meaningful Use every day. Here’s what we think about all the hoopla.

Anyone following the Meaningful Use program has heard the latest – Andy Slavitt, acting CMS administrator, made some interesting comments about the program at a conference in mid-January.

Here are Slavitt’s exact words:

“Now that we effectively have technology into virtually every place care is provided, we are now in the process of ending Meaningful Use and moving to a new regime culminating with the MACRA* implementation,” Slavitt told attendees. “The Meaningful Use program as it has existed, will now be effectively over and replaced with something better.”

Here’s What We Know…

• The dialogue has been opened on how and when the Meaningful Use program will change, but nothing official has been announced.
• The concept of incentivizing healthcare providers for making better use of their EHRs to improve patient care will likely continue, in some way, shape or form.
• From the top officials down to everyone on the front lines, we all still want interoperability and the continued interest in and passion about Meaningful Use is a testament to this fact.
• Your practice should not switch EHRs, leave the Meaningful Use program, or make any major decisions based on this new development.

Here’s What We Don’t Know…

• Whether a new presidential administration will continue with MACRA and MIPS or something entirely new will come about.
• If they do become official, whether MACRA and MIPS will replace Meaningful Use entirely or whether some elements of Meaningful Use will continue within the new programs.
• If Meaningful Use will still be mandatory in 2018, as was announced in October, and whether MIPS could possibly begin in 2019 as has been proposed.

So here at CORHIO, we are buckling up for the next Meaningful Use ride and will curiously wait and see what happens. MACRA and MIPS details are far from set in stone, but there is information out there for those interested in diving in (read the full CMS MIPS draft here). We are diving in ourselves to stay abreast of what’s happening, so stay tuned for more details from CORHIO on these programs.

*Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) - authorized the creation of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), which measures healthcare providers on quality, practice improvement, cost, and use of technology.