[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":4900,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"News of the demise of the Meaningful Use program \u2014 including Stage 3 \u2014 has been greatly exaggerated, according to Karen DeSalvo, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, who spoke Wednesday morning at a joint HIT Policy and Standards Committee meeting.

While the Obama administration is moving forward with its transition to value-based payment and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed by Congress last year, DeSalvo emphasized that MACRA won\u2019t happen overnight; proposed regulations are expected this spring for public comment, she said. And physicians will continue to be measured on their meaningful use of certified EHR technology for purposes of determining their Medicare payments.

\u201cWe\u2019re moving to a place where we\u2019re rewarding better outcomes and using health IT, rather than focusing on rewarding health IT particularly,\u201d said DeSalvo, referring to a January 19 blog that she and CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt co-authored regarding the future of the EHR Incentive Program. \u201cWe\u2019re considering how MACRA and MIPS [the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System] vis-\u00e0-vis the Meaningful Use program will begin to shift our focus to outcomes-based rewards using health IT, compared with really incentivizing the use of health IT as a more near-term strategy that\u2019s been successful in the last few years.\u201d

Ding, Dong, Meaningful Use is dead! Long live Meaningful Use!\u2019 It\u2019s a bit like Monty Python. \u2018I\u2019m not dead yet! But, you\u2019re almost dead. Not yet!'<\/bsp-quote>Also See<\/b>: CMS Details Next Steps for EHR Incentive Program<\/a>

Enacted in April 2015, MACRA includes two key programs for Medicare providers: the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs).

DeSalvo reiterated that the Department of Health and Human Services has set as a goal that 30 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 and 50 percent in 2018 would be based on APMs, such as accountable care organizations, bundled payments and patient-centered medical homes. The ONC chief argued that, \u201cas we\u2019re moving into this new chapter\u201d of health IT, \u201cit\u2019s really more about knowledge that can come from that data as opposed to thinking about the adoption of platforms themselves.\u201d

However, the transition will not necessarily mean the end of Meaningful Use\u2014quite the opposite, according to ONC officials. Among other requirements, MACRA modifies participation and payment for MU for Medicare-eligible professionals and requires participants to use certified health IT.

As Elise Sweeney Anthony, acting director of ONC\u2019s Office of Policy, pointed out in the meeting, 25 percent of the composite performance score that determines a physician\u2019s penalty or bonus payment will be based on meaningful use of certified EHR technology. \u201cWe\u2019re working hand in hand with CMS as we think about what that looks like and how best to move the use of certified health IT forward for the benefit of providers and patients.\u201d

In addition, she said that under MIPS the HHS secretary has discretion to reduce the percentage weight for this performance category (but not below 15 percent) in any year in which the secretary estimates that the proportion of EPs who are meaningful EHR users is 75 percent or greater, resulting in an increase in the applicable percentage weights of the other performance categories.

Sweeney Anthony also made the case that MACRA focuses on Medicare EPs, not eligible hospitals, critical access hospitals or Medicaid providers. She said CMS and ONC are considering how best to align MACRA with these other stakeholders. Regardless, the Office of Policy director proclaimed that ONC\u2019s certified health IT program will \u201ccontinue to flourish\u201d in the delivery system reform and MACRA environment.

\u201c\u2019Ding, Dong, Meaningful Use is dead! Long live Meaningful Use!\u2019 It\u2019s a bit like Monty Python. \u2018I\u2019m not dead yet! But, you\u2019re almost dead. Not yet!\u2019\u201d John Halamka, MD, chief information officer of Boston\u2019s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and vice chair of the Health IT Standards Committee, told the meeting.

As an objective third party, Halamka concluded that \u201cthere\u2019s a process for everything,\u201d including the transition from the staged Meaningful Use program to MACRA. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard from Andy and Karen some really interesting directions we\u2019re all headed in as we get to more outcomes-based activities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be very interesting to hear more details. It\u2019s a process.\u201d
","saveContent":"News of the demise of the Meaningful Use program \u2014 including Stage 3 \u2014 has been greatly exaggerated, according to Karen DeSalvo, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, who spoke Wednesday morning at a joint HIT Policy and Standards Committee meeting.

While the Obama administration is moving forward with its transition to value-based payment and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed by Congress last year, DeSalvo emphasized that MACRA won\u2019t happen overnight; proposed regulations are expected this spring for public comment, she said. And physicians will continue to be measured on their meaningful use of certified EHR technology for purposes of determining their Medicare payments.

\u201cWe\u2019re moving to a place where we\u2019re rewarding better outcomes and using health IT, rather than focusing on rewarding health IT particularly,\u201d said DeSalvo, referring to a January 19 blog that she and CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt co-authored regarding the future of the EHR Incentive Program. \u201cWe\u2019re considering how MACRA and MIPS [the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System] vis-\u00e0-vis the Meaningful Use program will begin to shift our focus to outcomes-based rewards using health IT, compared with really incentivizing the use of health IT as a more near-term strategy that\u2019s been successful in the last few years.\u201d

Ding, Dong, Meaningful Use is dead! Long live Meaningful Use!\u2019 It\u2019s a bit like Monty Python. \u2018I\u2019m not dead yet! But, you\u2019re almost dead. Not yet!'<\/bsp-quote>Also See<\/b>: CMS Details Next Steps for EHR Incentive Program<\/a>

Enacted in April 2015, MACRA includes two key programs for Medicare providers: the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs).

DeSalvo reiterated that the Department of Health and Human Services has set as a goal that 30 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 and 50 percent in 2018 would be based on APMs, such as accountable care organizations, bundled payments and patient-centered medical homes. The ONC chief argued that, \u201cas we\u2019re moving into this new chapter\u201d of health IT, \u201cit\u2019s really more about knowledge that can come from that data as opposed to thinking about the adoption of platforms themselves.\u201d

However, the transition will not necessarily mean the end of Meaningful Use\u2014quite the opposite, according to ONC officials. Among other requirements, MACRA modifies participation and payment for MU for Medicare-eligible professionals and requires participants to use certified health IT.

As Elise Sweeney Anthony, acting director of ONC\u2019s Office of Policy, pointed out in the meeting, 25 percent of the composite performance score that determines a physician\u2019s penalty or bonus payment will be based on meaningful use of certified EHR technology. \u201cWe\u2019re working hand in hand with CMS as we think about what that looks like and how best to move the use of certified health IT forward for the benefit of providers and patients.\u201d

In addition, she said that under MIPS the HHS secretary has discretion to reduce the percentage weight for this performance category (but not below 15 percent) in any year in which the secretary estimates that the proportion of EPs who are meaningful EHR users is 75 percent or greater, resulting in an increase in the applicable percentage weights of the other performance categories.

Sweeney Anthony also made the case that MACRA focuses on Medicare EPs, not eligible hospitals, critical access hospitals or Medicaid providers. She said CMS and ONC are considering how best to align MACRA with these other stakeholders. Regardless, the Office of Policy director proclaimed that ONC\u2019s certified health IT program will \u201ccontinue to flourish\u201d in the delivery system reform and MACRA environment.

\u201c\u2019Ding, Dong, Meaningful Use is dead! Long live Meaningful Use!\u2019 It\u2019s a bit like Monty Python. \u2018I\u2019m not dead yet! But, you\u2019re almost dead. Not yet!\u2019\u201d John Halamka, MD, chief information officer of Boston\u2019s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and vice chair of the Health IT Standards Committee, told the meeting.

As an objective third party, Halamka concluded that \u201cthere\u2019s a process for everything,\u201d including the transition from the staged Meaningful Use program to MACRA. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard from Andy and Karen some really interesting directions we\u2019re all headed in as we get to more outcomes-based activities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be very interesting to hear more details. It\u2019s a process.\u201d
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DeSalvo: Meaningful use program is not dead

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