WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched its attestation system – where hospitals and physicians participating in Medicare can verify online that they are meaningful users of certified electronic health records.

 

CMS officials said thousands of providers have registered to participate in the federal EHR incentive program since last January. The attestation system will now allow those registrants to document that they have collected data according to specified measures.

 

Under the meaningful use program, qualified Medicare physicians can earn up to $18,000 in 2011 and up to $44,000 through 2015, while hospitals can receive $2 million a year through 2015. CMS officials said incentive payments were slated to have begun in May.

 

According to Todd Shore, a senior manager for health IT at Deloitte Consulting, CMS has made the attestation website easy to access. CMS has also supplied tutorials, including PDF-format guides on how to get started on the registration and verification procedures.

 

Physicians must report on 15 core measures, five of 10 menu option measures and six clinical quality measures, which consist of three required core measures and three additional measures. Hospitals must report on 14 core measures, five of 10 menu measures and 15 clinical quality measures.

 

For Stage 1 of meaningful use, providers have a 90-day reporting period. To assure that providers start their reporting period in time to attest and receive a Medicare payment in 2011, hospitals should start their 90-day period by July 3 and physicians by Oct. 1.

 

In his April 18 blog, John Halamka, MD, CIO of the CareGroup Health System and Harvard Medical School, said attestation “should take 30-60 minutes to complete, if you have all your data handy.”

 

Halamka welcomed comments on the attestation experience from providers to help inform the Healthcare IT Standards Committee Implementation Workgroup. Halamka is vice chairman of the Healthcare IT Standards Committee. The workgroup is beginning to develop plans for Stage 2 of meaningful use.