The last day for anesthesiologists, pain physicians and other “eligible professionals” (EPs) to begin documenting Meaningful Use of their certified electronic health record (EHR) technology is just two months away.  EPs must start participating in the program by October 3, 2013 and continue for 90 days, through December 31st, to earn an incentive bonus of up to $15,000.  The timeline for 2013 participation is as follows:The incentive payment is 75% of Medicare allowed charges up to a maximum annual cap.  An EP whose first year of demonstrating Meaningful Use (MU) in 2013 can earn a maximum EHR incentive of $39,000 over four years.  (To earn the greatest possible total incentive of $44,000, the EP would have had to start participating in 2012).  If the first year of MU is 2014, the maximum payment is $24,000, as shown below:The EP must successfully demonstrate MU no later than 2014 or face a financial...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has just issued a proposed rule that will make it more difficult than ever for anesthesiologists and pain physicians to qualify for the Medicare or Medicaid electronic health records (EHR) incentive.  There will be a 60-day comment period, after which CMS will review the feedback and publish a final rule this summer.BackgroundUnder the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified EHR technology and use it in a meaningful way. What is considered “meaningful use” is evolving in three stages:Stage 1 (which began in 2011 and remains the starting point for all providers): “meaningful use” consists of transferring data to EHRs and being able to share information, including electronic copies and visit summaries for...