The fiscal year 2018 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule offers greater flexibility for providers to meet the electronic health record (EHR) meaningful use requirements. 

Key changes to the meaningful use requirements include:

• Hospitals are not required to meet EHR stage 3 meaningful use requirements until 2019.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will now allow a 90-day EHR attestation reporting period for 2018.  Prior to this a full-year reporting period was required.
• Hospitals can use the 2014 edition of Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) in 2018 rather than implementing the 2015 CEHRT edition. This is a critical change since many EHR vendors and providers were struggling to get the 2015 EHR edition implemented safely within a short time frame. 

The IPPS rule also offers greater flexibly in meeting the Inpatient Quality Reporting requirements. CMS reduced the reporting period to any one single quarter in 2017 and 2018. 

In addition, CMS reduced the number of self-selected electronic clinical quality measures from eight to four in 2017 and 2018.