27,000 providers expected for CMS electronic documentation pilot by year’s end

Providers who opt to send their medical documentation electronically to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contractors will need to do some shopping. You'll have choices regarding who will be the designated "health information handler" (HIH)--which can include electronic health record vendors and health information exchanges--to send your data to CMS, as well as how you'll submit records to that HIH, and even how to pay for the service.    

Those are just a few of the details made public by CMS about its electronic submission of medical documentation (esMD) pilot program, set to launch in September, according to Melanie Combs-Dyer, Deputy Director of CMS's Office of Financial Management, Provider Compliance Group, who participated in a webcast last week. She expects that 2,000 Part A providers and 25,000 Part B providers will have signed up by December, with participation ramping up after that...