Attention Eligible Professional: Meaningful Use Attestation Available for Connecticut Medicaid EHR Incentive Program

Beginning August 1, 2012, Connecticut’s Medical Assistance Provider Incentive Repository (MAPIR) system will begin accepting Meaningful Use (MU) of the certified Electronic Health Records (EHR) attestation from Eligible Professionals (EPs) including physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives as part of the Medicaid EHR Incentive program. The Medicaid EHR Incentive Program provides a financial incentive to providers for the “meaningful use” of certified EHR technology to achieve health and efficiency goals. Until now, EPs have been able to attest and receive incentive payments for their first payment year by adopting, implementing, or upgrading (A/I/U) a certified EHR technology. Soon providers may attest and apply for their second year meaningful use payments. For the second (and subsequent) payment year, EPs are required to attest to meaningfully using a certified EHR technology. Starting August 1 providers may log in to MAPIR from your secure provider portal at www.ctdssmap.com, attest to MU and apply for your second year Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payments.

The criterion for meaningful use is staged in three steps over the course of the next five years. Stage 1 of MU sets the baseline for electronic data capture and information sharing. It requires providers to capture health information in a structured format, use the information to track key clinical conditions for care coordination purposes, implement clinical decision support tools to facilitate disease and medication management, use EHRs to engage patients and families and report clinical quality measures and public health information. Subsequent stages of meaningful use will continue to expand upon this baseline and be developed through future Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rulemaking.

To demonstrate meaningful use and receive incentive payments, EPs must meet and report Stage 1 requirements including:

15 Core MU Objectives

5 Measures choosen from a list of 10 from menu set objectives

6 total Clinical Quality Measures (CQM)

3 Core Measures (or substituting Alternate Core Measures where necessary)

3 out of 38 from an Additional Measures Set

To learn more about the Meaningful Use please refer to the CMS EHR MU Overview at http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Meaningful_Use.html

Providers may receive Medicaid EHR incentive payments over a 6 year period. EPs attesting to MU for their second payment year need to attest to a 90-day period. For 2012, the 90-day period must be made during calendar year 2012. In a complete EHR system, providers should run a MU Measure Report or consult a MU dashboard for the EHR reporting period selected and determine whether the objectives are met. If not, take necessary action to increase your measure compliance or choose another 90-day period. For all subsequent years, EPs will be reporting on the entire calendar year. Payment years do not have to be consecutive. If providers are not ready to report meaningful use of the certified EHR technology this calendar year, providers may skip a year between payments, however no payments will be made available after 2021. Meaningful use attestations will be accepted through March 31, 2013 for calendar year 2012.

Resources: If you have questions, please contact the Connecticut EHR Incentive Program Help desk by email at ctmedicaid-ehr@hp.com or by calling 1-855-313-6638 toll free.