Review the resources related to Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and meaningful use objectives.
Review the Criteria for Attestation.
Consider your current workplace or a former workplace and reflect on how EHR implementation slows your work, including staffing issues, medication barcoding, or any other issues that you might encounter.
Identify policy mandates and requirements and reflect on how informatics and EHR implementation affect your ability to meet those policy mandates and requirements.
Identify other mandates (e.g., quality, safety, requirement of reporting) and reflect on how they may affect issues you identified.
providers: positive and safe patient outcomes at all points and levels of care.
MACRA and Meaningful Use
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
MACRA and Meaningful Use
Although technological advancements in healthcare have improved how care is delivered to patients, technical challenges and the policies that have been enacted to govern practice with the available technologies are affecting their successful integration. Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) contains rules that define how the federal government offers incentives and adjusts payment for physicians (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2019; CMS, 2022). The MACRA and meaningful use objectives have some negative impacts on the current place of work as far as the implementation of the Electronic Heath Records (EHR) is concerned.
Meaningful use, also called the EHR incentive program, offers incentives to healthcare providers who are able to use the EHR to generate positive patient outcomes. However, these mandates are preventing some physicians from receiving full incentives owing to frequent technical challenges that prevent effective use of the EHR technology to improve patient outcomes (Centers for Disease Control, 2017; HealthIT.gov.). The MACRA utilizes a Merit-Based Payment System (MIPS) that adjusts physicians’ payments based on performance in four key areas namely quality, cost, promoting interoperability, and improvement activities. It also utilizes the Advanced Alternative Payment Model (AAPM) track that offers incentives to physicians who provide high-quality and cost-effective care (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2019; CMS, 2022). The staffing issues and challenges with medication barcoding on the EHR in the facility affect physicians’ abilities to meet the policy mandates and requirements outlined in the EHR incentive program.
Factors related to quality and interoperability have an influence on other MIPS components namely the Value-Based Modifier and Physician Quality Reporting Program mandates. For example, physicians who encounter challenges with EHR technology are always unable to provide positive and safe patient outcomes at all points and levels of care. Eventually, these providers are unable to receive high compensation due to poor quality care and the inability to ensure interoperability when using the EHR.
References
Centers for Disease Control. (2017, January 18). Meaningful use. https://www.cdc.gov/ehrmeaningfuluse/introduction.html
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). (2022). MACRA. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Value-Based-Programs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs
HealthIT.gov. Meaningful use. https://www.healthit.gov/topic/meaningful-use-and-macra/meaningful-use#:~:text=With%20the%20introduction%20of%20the,itself%20is%20part%20of%20MACRA.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2019, February 20). Meaningful use and MACRA. https://www.healthit.gov/topic/meaningful-use-and-macra/meaningful-use-and-macra