CHCN clinics made incredible progress on Meaningful Use in 2013, due to the hard work of multi-disciplinary teams which included clinical, executive, administrative, quality, IT and EHR leadership. During the year, EHR go-lives increased from two clinics fully live on the EHR and another in progress to five clinics fully live and all eight clinics with live sites. By the March 31st attestation deadline, six of our clinics will be reporting providers for 90 days of Stage 1 Meaningful Use (MU) and two will have providers who have met full year Meaningful Use requirements. These achievements are especially impressive given the short timelines for several clinics between go-live and achieving MU.

As a result of this hard work, CHCN was able to surpass its goals under the Meaningful Use grant, and ended 2013 with a total of 114 providers credited for meeting MU measures. However, Meaningful Use incentive payments won’t be earned by the clinics until the attestation process is complete. As we near the March 31st attestation deadline, some thoughts to keep in mind when working with the Medi-Cal State Level Registry system:

  • When attesting for 2013, don’t forget any providers who did not already attest to the first year AIU payment and might be eligible through your clinic.
  • All providers, regardless of stage, must have had at least one Medi-Cal visit at the clinic in 2012 to be eligible for 2013 attestation under your prequalified group status.
  • Make sure the CHPL certified EHR number is correct for NextGen plus i2i, if using both to attest.  Go to http://oncchpl.force.com/ehrcert/ehrproductsearch, add the correct version of products to cart and then generate number by clicking “get CMS EHR Certification ID”.
  • If you run into any problems attesting and need to call the State Level Registry helpdesk, remember to get a ticket number. The help desk number is (866) 879-0101.
  • Don’t wait until the last minute!  Attestation can be a time consuming process, and signatures are needed from all providers who you will be attesting.

Meaningful Use in 2014 will bring a new set of goals and challenges. All providers can attest using a 90 day reporting period in 2014, however there are also additional requirements. Some of these include upgrading to the 2014 certified version of EHRs, new clinical quality measures and providing patients electronic access to their health information.

Please contact Molly Hart with any additional questions or concerns around Meaningful Use at mhart@chcnetwork.org.