On January 2, 2018, Eligible Hospitals (EHs) and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) began attesting to CMS by submitting their 2017 Meaningful Use attestations in the QualityNet Secure Portal (QNet) for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program.

The Medicare EHR Incentive Program attestation deadline for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals is Friday, March 16, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. PT. The original deadline of February 28, 2018, was extended by CMS to provide hospitals additional time to submit Meaningful Use (MU) and Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) data.

Instead of using the Medicare EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System, hospitals began attesting to Meaningful Use for 2017 through the QualityNet Secure Portal. The goal of this change is to make it easier for facilities to report data to CMS. Instead of reporting CQMs and MU attestations in two separate systems, EHs and CAHs are now able to report this information through one portal via QNet.

Objectives and Measures

All EHs and CAHs are required to report to a single set of:
7 objectives for  Medicare Modified Stage 2, or
6 objectives for Medicare Modified Stage 3

Clinical Quality Measures

EHs and CAHs must either report electronically or attest to CQMs for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. Visit the eCQM Library page for more information.

Reporting Period

The 2017 EHR reporting period is a minimum of any continuous 90 days between January 1 and December 31, 2017.

Payment Information

The last year for Medicare EHs and CAHs to earn an incentive payment was 2016.

EHs and CAHs that do not successfully demonstrate meaningful use of CEHRT are subject to Medicare payment adjustments.There are no payment adjustments under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

Resources

The QNet User Role Management Guide helps hospitals update provider and administrator’s QNet accounts to allow for attestation.

The QNET User Guide helps hospitals create and update their accounts to prepare for Medicare attestation. The User Guide includes step-by-step instructions for creating a new account.

QualityNet Hospital Registration and Attestation User Guide for Calendar Year 2017

QualityNet Hospital Objectives and Clinical Quality Measures User Guide for Calendar Year 2017

For more information on the EHR Hospital Transition, please review the Overview Fact Sheet

Please contact our team of expert advisors at the Kentucky REC with any Meaningful Use questions via email at

in**@Ke*********.com











 or by phone: 859-323-3090.