Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is advising providers and groups to start planning and getting ready for 2014 deadlines affecting electronic health record (EHR) programs. Some of the major deadlines are as follows: January 1:

• Administrative simplification operating rules for electronic funds transfers (EFT) and remittance advice.
• Stage 2 for eligible professionals (EPs) beginning their 3rd or 4th year of participation in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
• Final eRx payment adjustment of 2% will be applied. Eligible professionals (EP) subject to the payment adjustment will receive 98% of their Medicare Part B PFS amount for covered professional services.

February 28:

• EPs must submit 2013 data by this date to receive Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) incentive payments for that year.
• EPs participating in the electronic Reporting Pilot must submit quality data to satisfy both PQRS and the clinical quality measures (CQM) requirement of the EHR program.
• EPs must register and attest to demonstrating meaningful use for the EHR incentive program to receive the 2013 year incentive payment.

October 1:

• ICD-10 replaces ICD-9. This is going to be one of the biggest change in health care. Diagnoses and inpatient procedures will be reported with the new system.
• This is the last day for Medicare EPs who haven’t participated in the EHR incentive program to being their 90 days of meaningful use for 2014. Not only will EPs fail to earn an incentive if this is not completed, but they will be subject to payment adjustments beginning at 1%. Payment adjustments are cumulative for every year an EP doesn’t participate.

Good luck!