Delays force feds to propose EHR reporting changes

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it plans to allow eligible professionals to attest in 2012 that they have used their electronic health records to collect data on clinical quality measures as part of the CMS criteria for "Meaningful Use" of EHRs. The 2010 Meaningful Use regulations required attestation only in 2011; after that, providers were to report the quality data by uploading it from their EHRs to a CMS-designated Web portal. In its new proposed rule on changes in physician reimbursement, CMS explained that it would allow attestation in 2012 because it's not yet ready to accept the data online. At the same time, CMS announced the creation of a new pilot program to pave the way for online submission of quality data from EHRs. Because CMS wants to move toward a system in which physicians can report the same data for meaningful use and for CMS' Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative, the program is called the Physicians Quality Reporting System-Medicare EHR Incentive Pilot.