Dear RevolutionEHR users,

Since 2011, EHR software vendors have been held to the requirement of becoming “certified EHR technology,” or CEHRT, so the health care providers using the EHR can attest to various payment programs.  This started with Meaningful Use and has moved in to MIPS, meaning that RevolutionEHR has an obligation to you to maintain its CEHRT status for you to be paid in the future pay-for-performance systems from MIPS to others that will arise from private payers.

The most recent “standard” for CEHRT was published into law in 2015, which means that the most up-to-date CEHRT status that is attainable is called 2015 Edition CEHRT.  Today, the standard is 2014 Edition, which RevolutionEHR has had for a number of years.  To reassure you, RevolutionEHR has already begun the behind-the-scenes work to enhance a variety of CEHRT standards to the 2015 Edition requirements.

RevolutionEHR will undergo its Certification standard testing by the end of 2017.  When it achieves the 2015 Edition CEHRT status, you will be notified because you will likely be documenting your latest EHR technology when doing data submission.

According to the currently published 2018 standard, RevolutionEHR will need to achieve 2015 Edition status prior to January 1, 2019.  MIPS continues to allow flexibility by allowing you to pick any 90 days to prove your compliance in 2018 and 2019.  As always, RevolutionEHR will bring you all of the system updates via our rhythmic software release schedule, and you will not pay any additional fees for 2015 Edition CEHRT components of the system.

For those that are interested, the stated goals of 2015 Edition CEHRT include:

• Improve interoperability
• Facilitate data access and exchange
• Ensure privacy and security capabilities
• Improve patient safety
• Reduce health disparities
• Use the certification program to support the care continuum
• Improve the reliability and transparency of certified health IT
• Support Stage 3 criteria for EHR Incentive Program and MIPS

After reading that, you might say, “I’m just a software user, so who cares?”  As Dr. Brett Paepke would point out, certification standards aim to have direct implications for providers and their patients, including:

• Financial significance
  • 2015 Edition CEHRT is required for Stage 3 participation in MIPS and the EHR Incentive Program (bonus money available through 2021 for docs in the Medicaid arm of the incentive program)
• Improved coordination of care through data sharing
  • Updated language, content, and transfer standards (i.e. SNOMED, C-CDA, etc.) ensure that certified technologies can communicate properly with one another.
    • A product that is not 2015 Edition certified might not be able to send patient data back and forth with a system that hasn’t achieved that certification
    • Lack of communication means inefficiency, harder process for continuity of care, etc.
    • Stage 3 will grade providers on sending, receiving, and incorporating C-CDA files (hard to do if your system isn’t speaking the same language as everyone else)
• Enhanced patient care
  • Allow incorporation of patient-generated health data (i.e. home IOP monitoring data could be submitted by patient and become an official part of the medical record)
  • Increased granularity of demographics (race, ethnicity, etc) could allow clinicians to filter patient care data with finer detail

• Greater patient access = greater engagement = better outcomes
  • Patients will be able to “collect” their clinical data from their various providers via an app on their mobile device or computer
  • No longer a need to log into multiple provider portals to retrieve information
  • Enhanced patient perception of practices that provides this ability
• Enhanced data safety/security
  • Increased security expectations of 2015 CEHRT removes responsibility from clinician to ensure that they possess technology certified to proper standards

In conclusion, RevolutionEHR realizes that functionality that improves activities that are specific to the delivery of eye care are important, and enhancements are constantly occurring.  2018 is a year when additional work must be done to get the software to a point where 2015 Edition CEHRT testing is successfully accomplished.  It’s a matter of survival for both RevolutionEHR and its user community.

If you have any detailed questions about certification standards or their impact on you, email Dr. Brett Paepke, Director of ECP Services, at bpaepke@rev-360.com, or contact me.

Best regards for your ongoing success,

Scott
Scott A. Jens, OD, FAAO
CEO, Rev360