New EHR Attestation Deadline for Eligible Professionals: March 31, 2014

New EHR Attestation Deadline for Eligible Professionals: 
March 31, 2014

CMS is extending the deadline for eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2013 reporting year from 11:59 pm ET on February 28, 2014 to 11:59 pm ET March 31, 2014.

In addition, CMS is offering assistance to eligible hospitals who may have experienced difficulty attesting to submit their attestation retroactively and avoid the 2015 payment adjustment.

This extension will allow more time for providers to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2013 program year, as well as avoid the 2015 payment adjustment.

This extension does not impact the deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program or any other CMS program, including the electronic submission for the Physician Quality Reporting System EHR Incentive Program Pilot. 

How to attest?
If you are an eligible professional, you may use the registration and attestation systemto submit your attestation for meaningful use for the 2013 reporting year.  You must attest prior by 11:59 pm ET on March 31, 2014 to meet the new 2013 program deadline. 

If you are an eligible hospital, you may contact CMS for assistance submitting your attestation retroactively.  You must contact CMS by 11:59 pm on March 15, 2014 in order to participate for the 2013 program year. 

Resources
If you are an eligible professional working on your attestation for the 2013 reporting period, there are resources available to help you with the registration and attestation process. 

• Stage 1 Meaningful Use Calculator
• Registration and Attestation User Guides
• EHR Incentive Program Website

The EHR Information Center is open to assist you with all of your registration and attestation system inquiries. Please call, 1-888-734-6433 (primary number) or 888-734-6563 (TTY number). The EHR Information Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. (Central Time), except federal holidays.

Tips 
In addition, there are some simple steps you can take which will help to make the process easier for you:

• Ensure that your payment assignment and other relevant information is up to date in the Medicare payment system PECOS
• Make sure to include a valid email address in your EHR program registration
• Consider logging on to use the attestation system during non-peak hours such as evenings and weekends
• Log on to the registration and attestation system now and ensure that your information is up to date and begin entering your 2013 data
• If you experience attestation problems, call the EHR Incentive Program Help Desk and report the problem
• If your organization has more than 1,000 providers assigned to a proxy user, use the PECOS system to designate additional proxies to facilitate attestation.

Eligible Hospital Instructions:

1. Send the following information to EH2013Extension@Provider-Resources.com  no later than 11:59 PM EST on 3/15/2014:
   • CCN
   • Hospital Name
   • Contact Person Name
   • Contact Person Email
   • Contact Person Phone
2. Type “EH 2013 EXTENSION” in the subject line of the email note
3. Each Hospital must be identified in a separate email

CMS will contact the person that you designate in your request to provide additional instructions regarding the Eligible Hospital 2013 attestation submission.