So fiscal year 2015 is here. Many may still be frantically taking care of last minute issues while they prepare for attestation for fiscal year 2014, but we need to remember not to neglect our new year. This year is a 365-day reporting period for all except those who will be in their first year of Meaningful Use.
CMS sent out an email via their listServ reminding us of some important things to remember.
First the Drug-Drug/Drug-Allergy checks need to be in place for the entire reporting period and below are some links to the details for these measures:
- Stage 1 Drug-Drug / Drug-Allergy Interaction Checks
- Stage 2 Clinical Decision Support for Drug-Drug / Drug-Allergy
The second thing is that for the Public Health objectives a hospital may have a 60 day leeway period while they register for and get up and running with the registry. However if you have already been reporting these in previous year they need to be continued without interruption through 2015.
- Stage 1 and Stage 2 Immunization Registries Data Submission
- Stage 1 and Stage 2 Electronic Reportable Lab Results
- Stage 1 and Stage 2 Syndromic Surveillance Data Submission
The final reminder was related to the threshold measures. Hospitals simply have to meet the threshold for fiscal year 2015. This means that they may not have to have 2014 Edition CEHRT in place for the whole year. CMS stated in the email
"If the eligible hospital meets the threshold during the reporting period, it meets the measure whether or not the function was in place for the full year."
As much as we would all like to stop and take a breath after the whirlwind that was 2014 we need to remember that fiscal year 2015 is here and we need to continue to work hard in order to ensure that we continue to use our EHR data in a meaningful way in accordance with the 2014 Edition CEHRT standards.
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