Description:
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Ways and Means on February 26, 2015
Under current law, a physician or other professional may be subject to payment reductions for services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries if the provider fails to achieve “meaningful use” of electronic health record (EHR) technology. The meaningful use standard requires that at least half of a provider’s encounters with patients occur in a setting that uses certified EHR technology. H.R. 887 would temporarily exclude services furnished in an ambulatory surgical center (ASC) from counting as patient encounters for the purpose of determining whether a provider achieves meaningful use of EHR technology.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R 887 would increase direct spending by $17 million over the fiscal year 2016-2020 period, but would have no further budgetary effect after 2020. Pay-as-you-go procedures apply because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending.
H.R. 887 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
