Dr. Kraus speaks in Washington, DC. Photo Source: drivethenation.com
Washington, D.C. - The American Chiropractic Association Medicare Committee met on March 7th in Washington DC. Dr. Steven Kraus, DC, DIBCN, FASA, FICC, Founder and CEO of Future Health Software, was asked to present information and an update on the CMS EHR Incentive Program to the committee.
Dr. Kraus presented the most recent updates to the program including additional information on audits currently occurring on DC’s who have successfully attested in the Incentive program and how those audits are being conducted. Kraus also informed the committee that on March 5th it was announced and confirmed that the federal government sequester and draconian cuts that Congress recently failed to stop resulted in a 2% cut that will occur on EHR Incentive payments that will be made on payments issued after April 1st, 2013. For example, this means that an EHR incentive payment of $15,000.00 will be reduced to $14,700.00. All Medicare payments are impacted by the federal sequester cuts.
The audits on the incentive program are being conducted by a CPA firm with attention focusing on each meaningful use criteria and the requirements for proof and validation that each measure was properly accounted for and performance validated. Some DC’s in the field had improperly declared exclusions to certain measures that were in the scope of the practice of a DC for such items as vital signs and clinical care summaries and have experienced potential difficulty with the audit review process. The final results of the audits have not been released. Most all DC’s that were audited that Kraus reviewed had proper documentation of meeting or exceeding the requirements for MU criteria.
The participation via registration in the EHR Incentive Program has increased to 7512 DC’s overall, yet that full number have not yet started their MU reporting period. Currently only, 1981 have received their MU incentive check for a total of over $28M paid out to those providers. Because the data is current through January 2013, Kraus stated that he expects that with the large number of DC’s who began their reporting period in Q4 of 2012 that over the next 8 weeks there will be a significant jump in payments for the 2012 first year participants as well as the second year payouts to those who just completed their second year of MU. Kraus expects the total payouts to exceed $50M to DC’s as the year progresses in 2013.
Future Health Software has helped more DC’s learn how to properly perform MU and successfully attest to receive their EHR incentive payment than any other EHR. For more information contact www.FutureHealthSoftware.com
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