Thursday, June 11, 2015

Starting this year, eligible medical professionals will see their Medicare payments cut if they aren't using records.



But doctors haven't been implementing the program because it is so complex, and now they worry about losing Medicare payments, said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., during a hearing Wednesday.

"This year, 257,000 physicians have already begun losing 1 percent of their Medicare reimbursements and 200 hospitals may be losing even more than that," said Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Meaningful use is adopted in stages, and currently doctors and hospitals are in stage two.

The stage's requirements, which include allowing patients to view and download records, are too complex to meet, Alexander said. Stage three, set to begin in 2018, is even more complex.
at Labels: , , ,