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Topic starter
We are seriously considering abandoning Meaningful Use Stage 2. As a specialty practice there are so many things that really just don't make sense nor add to patient care. The work flow changes, the interfaces needed, the trying to come up with non value added patient reminders, installation of what seems to be a very buggy CPS12, trying to convince patients to use our portal to look at their info (even though a lot of our patients may only see us 1 or 2 times), having to transmit data to our "care trans out" providers (that don't seem to be online) are some of the reasons we are contemplating throwing in the towel.
Has anyone else come to this frustrating, but reality check of a conclusion?
Posted : August 29, 2014 7:36 am
We have a couple of pediatric specialists for whom we are trying to get approved for hardship exclusions, but it has to go through our own operations office before we take it further. Pediatric Urology and Pediatric Neurology, for starters.
Are there any pediatric specialists out there who are on schedule for attesting MU2? If so, it would be great to hear how things are going, and any tips you may have for the rest of us.
Thanks,
Mary
Posted : September 1, 2014 11:36 pm
Just make sure you do the math first on your allowable amounts to know how much you'll see in % penalty reductions when dropping, in order to set your future revenue expectations.
For the non-$ items, you'll need to make a decision on whether to keep up with software changes (even if not attesting) as other sites do upgrade. As a specialist, I'd assume you'll want to accept incoming Transitions much more so than outgoing.
Posted : September 2, 2014 5:36 am
Topic starter
We have done the math and at a 3% penalty we have determined staying in the MU program for Stage 2 is just not worth it for us. What seals the deal that this is the best decision for us is we believe there is such a low probabilty for our specialty being able to actually achieve the MU Stage 2 measures that investing more time and money in "attempting" is just throwing good money after bad.
Our "gut" feeling is there will be so many other providers coming to this same realization and ending up either attempting and failing or simply not attesting for MU Stage 2 that CMS will be forced to realize their all or nothing approach does not make sense.
We know counting on common sense to prevail may not be a good strategy when it comes to Government programs....but I digress.
The scary thing is if CMS doubles down and does not adjust things there could be even higher penalties than the known 3%. The next step for us would be to consider not accepting Medicare and that is a whole other story....
Any others abandoning MU Stage 2? For those continuing what is your guestimate on your chances of achieving it?
Posted : September 10, 2014 12:00 am
We never even tried for Stage 1 MU for many of the same reasons. So far we've never regretted it. It would have cost a lot of money, a lot of time, and caused far more stress than we were willing to deal with. Being an OBGYN, 90% of our patients are young so very few are Medicare. I'll tell you one thing, it sure is a relief, when I hear about all the troubles other practices are going through, to be able to say, "We don't have to worry about that because we're not doing MU".
We're still trying to keep on the cutting edge of technology with things like secure messaging, ePrescribing, Portals, and that sort of thing. But WE get to decide how to implement them when.
Posted : October 28, 2014 11:47 am
