HHS Extends a Meaningful-Use Deadline

HHS has extended until 2014 the compliance date for Stage 2 meaningful use for those hospitals, physicians and other eligible professionals that qualify as Stage 1 meaningful users in 2011.

The announced rollback came in an HHS news release about a visit today by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland to discuss health information technology's role in job creation.

Under the current rules for the Medicare portion of the electronic health-record system incentive program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, hospitals, doctors and other eligible professionals who qualified for incentive payments as Stage 1 meaningful users in 2011—the program's first year—would have to meet new and expectedly more stringent Stage 2 standards in 2013.

But according to HHS' statement, if those providers had delayed participation until 2012, "they could wait to meet these new (Stage 2) standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment."

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/7z7h7uq

Source: Modern Healthcare