By Joseph Conn
See full article in Modern Healthcare
The Senate Finance Committee began marking up a bill meant to adjust meaningful-use requirements for physicians using ambulatory surgery centers.
The Electronic Health Fairness Act is bipartisan legislation that would adjust meaningful-use requirements of the federal electronic health-record incentive payment program and protect providers who use ASCs from possible Medicare reimbursement penalties.
In 2015, physicians became eligible for a piece of the $30 billion EHR incentive pie if they performed at least half of their outpatient procedures in a setting with a certified EHR. Failure to meet the meaningful-use requirements could mean reduced future Medicare reimbursements of 1% up to 5%.
ASCs were excluded from qualification for EHR incentive payments. As a consequence, many of the EHRs used by physicians in ASCs have not been tested and certified for use in the program. Read more >>