Thursday, February 20, 2014

Meaningful Use attestation deadline extended to March 31

 Eligible professionals must submit their Medicare EHR incentive (Meaningful Use) attestation by 9:59 p.m. MT on March 31 -- an extension from the original Feb. 28 deadline -- in order to earn a 2013 incentive payment and avoid a 1 percent penalty in 2015. The extension does not change deadlines for the Medicaid EHR incentive program or any other CMS reporting program.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has provided the below tips on attesting:
Ensure that your payment assignment and other relevant information is up to date in the Medicare payment system PECOS
Make sure to include a valid email address in your EHR program registration
Consider logging on to use the attestation system during non-peak hours such as evenings and weekends
Log on to the registration and attestation system now and ensure that your information is up to date and begin entering your 2013 data
If you experience attestation problems, call the EHR Incentive Program Help Desk at 1-888-734-6433 (M-F 6:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. MT) and report the problem
If your organization has more than 1,000 providers assigned to a proxy user, use the PECOS system to designate additional proxies to facilitate attestation.

Click here to go to the federal CMS website to register or attest for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Click here to go to MGMA's resource center to view Meaningful Use resources, such as a compilation of most-asked member questions.