Learn More About 2019 Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program Requirements for Eligible Hospitals, Dual-Eligible Hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals

In 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continued its overhaul of the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program to continue the advancement of certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) utilization, focusing on burden reduction, and improving interoperability and patient access to health information.

As a reminder, below are detailed requirements for the 2019 Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program to ensure program participants continue to have a successful reporting period:

The EHR reporting period for new and returning participants is a minimum of any continuous 90-day period from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019.
Participants are required to use 2015 Edition CEHRT.
- The 2015 Edition CEHRT did not have to be implemented on January 1, 2019, but the functionality must be in place by the first day of the EHR reporting period.
- Eligible hospitals or critical access hospitals must use the 2015 Edition functionality for the full EHR reporting period, in many situations the product may be deployed, but pending certification.
Requires reporting on a smaller set of objectives and measures:
- Electronic Prescribing
- Health Information Exchange
- Provider to Patient Exchange
- Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange
Performance-based scoring methodology instead of the previous threshold-based methodology for a total score of up to 100 possible points.
Requires a minimum total score of 50 points to be considered a meaningful EHR user and avoid a negative Medicare payment adjustment.
Submit a “yes” to the Prevention of Information Blocking Attestation.
Submit a “yes” for the Security Risk Analysis measure.