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Hi all,
I have not been able to find any clear yes/no answer regarding whether or not clinical staff are still required to be 'certified' and marked as such in the EMR for reporting.
Previously this was primarily necessary due to the CPOE measures associated with Meaningful Use, but as these measures are not part of MIPS our administration is wondering if this requirement is still valid?
Thoughts?
~Vikki Jones
Posted : June 19, 2017 11:51 pm
Hi Vikki,
Although I doubt you will be able to find any kind of a statement by CMS or ONC to validate this, I think it is fair to conclude that the MA certification requirement went away with MU and CPOE no longer being measured. Our organization scrambled and imposed a certification mandate in 2015-2016 which was pretty painful. We would have still required it eventually but would have appreciated getting to take a more measured approach.
Posted : June 20, 2017 1:47 am
I was wondering the same, but since I couldn't find a clear answer, we decided to have our new staff go through the certification process this year.
Posted : June 20, 2017 4:01 am
I am in agreement with what pvassaur says. I doubt CMS will retract any of that but the idea that they are no longer measuring CPOE for MIPS says a bundle. We do not require it at this point in time and we have allowed them to perform the regular duties that were restricted if they were not certified
Posted : June 21, 2017 6:52 am
All,
I finally received an answer from our area AHEC representative here in North Carolina.
AHEC states, "Since the measure is gone this is no longer a priority and it shouldn't matter in regards to meeting MIPS requirements".
Posted : July 6, 2017 1:24 am
I'm coming to this party late, but I would like to post a "devil's advocate" response. The fact that the CPOE measure dropped out of the objectives (you would expect to see it in the "Advancing Care Initiatives") category may not be because it is no longer important, but because the measure is no longer meaningful to track because anyone that is doing CPOE is assumed to have some kind of clinical certification. This is not unlike the quality metrics that CMS considers "topped out." Just because something is topped out shouldn't mean you stop doing them (but I have had several conversations with physicians that want to do just that). A "topped out" objective is simply one that should be so ingrained in your workflow, there is no longer any point in trying to incentivize anyone to do it (i.e. it's become universally adopted as a best practice).
I could be mistaken, but I believe that any EHR that is certified to 2014 and above must have the capability of limiting a user's privileges so that only individuals with the proper certification can perform CPOE. Centricity has this feature. Whether or not you use it is up to you, but until CMS clearly spells out that some form of certification is no longer required, I think you are opening yourself up to potential risks (e.g. malpractice risks).
If you do choose to allow non-certified people to enter orders into Centricity to reduce the administrative burden on physicians, then I would recommend the system be configured to require the physician to sign off on all those orders. Personally it seems pointless; if the provider knows how to use the system, they could probably enter the orders or order sets themselves vs. tasking someone else to do it and then signing off on them later.
I don't want to read into anyone's situation, but I have a strong suspicion the desire to move away from this prior rule is out of convenience. I'm not saying I support everything CMS does, but their intent is to protect the patient and improve the quality of the outcome. So, if you move away from the CPOE certification requirement, I would highly recommend you document why doing so is in the best interest of the patient.
If anyone can find anything official from CMS that would indicate this requirement has been rescinded, please post the reference here for everyone's benefit.
#feelingyourpain
Greg
Posted : July 24, 2018 10:04 am
