An In-Depth Look at the Public Health Objective in Modified Stage 2 of Meaningful Use

December 14th, 2015 | Published Under Meaningful Use

CMS released the final ruling for changes to the EHR Incentive Program and Meaningful Use on October 6, 2015, which included several changes to the Public Health objective. In previous years, the public health measures required “Ongoing Submission” to a public health agency. Starting in 2015, the wording was changed to “Active Engagement” to allow greater flexibility for eligible professionals (EPs) and eligible hospitals (EHs).

What is Active Engagement? Active Engagement is defined by CMS as one of three activities:

1) The EP/EH has registered with a public health agency or

2) The EP/EH is in the Testing and Validation phase of data submission with a public health agency or

3) The EP/EH is in the Production phase and is submitting data on an ongoing basis to a public health agency.

To meet the objective, EPs must meet 2 out of the 3 possible measures and eligible hospitals must meet 3 out of the 4 possible measures. There are alternate exclusions for EPs and EHs originally scheduled to demonstrate Stage 1 in 2015:

EPs scheduled to be in Stage 1 in 2015: Must attest to at least 1 measure from the Public Health Reporting Objective Measures 1-3. EPs may claim an alternate exclusion for Measure 1, Measure 2, or Measure 3. An alternate exclusion may only be claimed for up to two measures, then the provider must either attest to or meet the exclusion requirements for the remaining measures.

EPs scheduled to be in Stage 2: Must attest to at least 2 measures from the Public Health Reporting Objective Measures 1-3. May claim an alternate exclusion for Measure 2 or Measure 3 (Syndromic Surveillance Measure or Specialized Registry Reporting Measure) or both.

EHs/CAHs scheduled to be in Stage 1: Must attest to at least 2 measures from the Public Health Reporting Objective Measures 1-4. EH/CAHs may claim an Alternate Exclusion for Measure 1, Measure 2, Measure 3 or Measure 4. An Alternate Exclusion may only be claimed for up to three measures, then the provider must either attest to or meet the exclusion requirements for the remaining measure.

EHs/CAHs scheduled to be in Stage 2:  Must attest to at least 3 measures from the Public Health Reporting Objective Measures 1-4. EH/CAHs may claim an Alternate Exclusion for Measure 3 (Specialized Registry Reporting Measure).

 

Below is the link to the FAQ for the alternate exclusions:

https://questions.cms.gov/faq.php?id=5005&faqId=12985

 

For an overall look at the Modified Stage 2, please watch our new webinar:

https://youtu.be/IEdz22ds3qg

 

Please contact us with questions:

CORHIO, info@corhio.org

Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, Medicaidehr@corhio.org