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Adoption of electronic health records
CMS Administrator Verma introduced
the “Patients over Paperwork” Initiative at
the end of October in an effort to improve
patient care while lowering healthcare costs
through the process of reducing unnecessary or overly burdensome regulations. 27
CMS will begin to review provider regulations and make determinations about which
rules should be revised, replaced, or taken off
the books.
Despite this potential reduction in regulatory requirements on the horizon, continued
adoption of EHR by hospitals will be significant in 2018, including the following
guidance changes and proposed rules.
· Hospitals must have a certified EHR
product in place by the end of 2017 in
order to complete 2018 reporting under
Meaningful Use requirements, or else
face Medicare payment penalties.28
· Hospitals participating in the Hospital
Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR)
Program must self-select and successfully
report on at least four of the 15 available
clinical quality measures (eCQMs) using
EHR technology certified to the 2014
and/or 2015 standards through QNet. 29
· In September 2017, CMS issued an
addendum to the eCQM annual update
specification, updating the eCQM
value sets, technical release notes, and
the binding parameter specifications
for the Fourth Quarter 2017 reporting
period for eligible hospitals and critical
access hospitals. 30
· In 2017, CMS issued guidance requiring
providers to attest that they are timely
sharing information with their patients
and other clinicians as necessary. 31
However, in order to properly make such
an attestation, a hospital must have the
proper technology in place and train
their physicians on how to effectively
use it.
Conclusion
Given that DOJ and OIG continue to secure
large monetary recoveries from hospitals
and are successfully holding individuals in
the hospital sector to personal responsibility for alleged wrongdoing, momentum is
clearly building for vigorous enforcement to
continue in 2018. Despite cutting funding to
HHS overall, President Trump has increased
funding to the HHS Health Care Fraud and
Abuse Control Unit by $70 million, with
the return on investment a substantial $5
returned for every $1 expended. Regardless
of the changes to come, the importance of
regularly auditing hospital practices and
implementing remedial measures to address
deficiencies identified in audits cannot
be understated.
