CMS Seeks to Delay E-Reporting Requirement

The CMS has proposed an array of rule changes affecting physicians and their use of health information technology under various Medicare and Medicaid payment regimes, including delaying for at least a year a requirement for the direct, electronic reporting of physician quality data as part of the meaningful use requirements of the electronic health-record incentive payment program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“One key change in the rule is a proposal to continue to allow physicians and other eligible professionals (collectively referred to as EPs under the program) to qualify as having met a portion of their meaningful-use requirements for clinical quality measures by submitting attestations to the CMS.”

The 621-page proposed rule, released by the CMS this month, but not scheduled for official publication in the Federal Register until Wednesday, is open for public comment through August 30.

Via Modern Healthcare  7-13-2011

Score One for the Florida Physician!

New legislation placing tighter restriction on out of state M.D., D.O., and D.D.S. expert witnesses became effective July 1, 2011.  HB 479 adds registration requirements for out of state or Canadian physicians wishing to serve as expert witnesses in Florida legal settings.  With a $50 application fee and an application to the Florida Department of Health an expert witness will receive a certificate to provide expert testimony.  The law also gives the respective boards authority to discipline, both licensed in this state and those with a certificate for providing deceptive or fraudulent expert witness testimony.  Lastly, such expert witnesses who submit a pre-suit verified expert medical report no longer are immune from discipline.