Author: EHR Incentive Program, NCMedicaid.HIT@dhhs.nc.gov
NC-MIPS is Open for Program Year 2019
The NC Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment System (NC-MIPS) is currently accepting Program Year 2019 Stage 3 Meaningful Use (MU) attestations.
All eligible professionals (EPs) attesting in program year 2019 will be required to attest to stage 3 MU and use a 2015 edition of certified EHR technology (CEHRT).
In program year 2019, EPs may continue to use a 90-day MU reporting period. The MU reporting period must be from calendar year 2019 and will be any continuous 90-day period in which an EP successfully demonstrates MU of CEHRT.
EPs who were paid for program year 2018 using a 90-day patient volume reporting period from calendar year 2018 have the option to use the same patient volume reporting period to attest for program year 2019.
CMS has updated its Promoting Interoperability Program website with program year 2019 information and details including the 2019 Medicaid EP specification sheets.
Program Year 2019 Webinar Series
The NC Medicaid EHR Incentive Program’s webinar series has been updated to reflect the rules and regulations for program year 2019.
The webinars are designed with the busy provider in mind, so most of them are less than five minutes long. Each short webinar explains a different piece of the attestation process such as updating a CEHRT number, updating a username in NC-MIPS, and submitting an attestation.
Other webinar topics include patient volume, auditing, MU and clinical quality measures (CQM) in program year 2019 and more. These webinars can be found on the ‘Resources and Webinars’ tab of the program website.
The Two-Part Attestation Process
All EPs who have 90 days of MU objective data that meets CMS’ requirements may submit their demographic, license, patient volume and MU objective data in NC-MIPS beginning May 1, 2019.
In program year 2019, EPs who have successfully attested to MU in a previous program year will be required to use a full calendar year CQM reporting period. Returning meaningful users who would like an early review of requirements, excluding CQMs, may submit their attestation in two parts. Part 1 of the attestation may be submitted now through Dec. 31, 2019.
The two-part attestation process does not increase or reduce the information being submitted but allows EPs to complete their attestation in a 12-month window instead of in four months. Submitting in two parts also allows ample time for EPs to address any attestation discrepancies. These EPs will return to NC-MIPS after Jan. 1, 2020 to submit their CQM data. EPs will not be required to sign or email any documentation for Part 1. The signed attestation packet will be emailed only once – after submission of CQMs in Jan. 2020.
EPs who have only attested to adopt, implement, upgrade (AIU), may use a 90-day CQM reporting period and may submit a complete attestation in NC-MIPS beginning May 1, 2019.
EPs who attested in NC-MIPS in a previous year will be automatically directed to the appropriate page in NC-MIPS.
For more information on the two-part attestation process, please email NCMedicaid.HIT@dhhs.nc.gov.
Program Year 2019 CQMs
EPs are required to report on six of 50 CQMs. New in program year 2019, CMS is encouraging EPs to report at least one outcome measure and one high priority measure. If any outcome or high priority CQMs are relevant to the EP’s scope of practice, those should be reported first. If there are no outcome and/or high priority CQMs that are relevant to the EP’s scope of practice, the EP may choose to report on any other six CQMs.
Program year 2019 CQMs are available for review on the eCQI website.
General Reminders
EPs who attested with another state should email NCMedicaid.HIT@dhhs.nc.gov prior to attesting with North Carolina for program year 2019.
For those practices unsure if a new provider may participate in the NC Medicaid EHR Incentive Program in program year 2019, please email the EP’s NPI to NCMedicaid.HIT@dhhs.nc.gov and program staff will determine if the provider previously attested with another practice.