Important News Regarding the Surescripts 10.6 Compliance Deadline

Mid-morning on Friday, October 3, 2014 we received information from McKesson with an update regarding the Surescripts 10.6 Compliance Deadline.  We want to make sure that our customers have the most up to date information so we are passing this information along.

This is the information that we received from McKesson:

FINAL Surescripts 10.6 Compliance Deadline

“Dear Value Added Resellers:

“We have now received a formal message from Surescripts regarding the deadline for compliance with their 10.6 Sunset Policy for Routing and Medication History.  In summary, Surescripts is giving vendors until December 31, 2014, to become compliant with their 10.6 protocol.  [McKesson is] already compliant and has been since early this year.  Our compliant versions are Practice Partner v11.0, Medisoft Clinical v19 SP1, and Lytec MD 2014 SP1.  No other versions of Practice Partner, Medisoft Clinical, or Lytec MD are/will be compliant with this requirement.  Customers have until June 30, 2015 to upgrade to an EMR that is compliant with the 10.6 protocol.  Beginning on July 1, 2015, Surescripts will reject all pre-10.6 or 4010 transactions and only users transacting on 10.6 and 5010A1 will be able to send Routing, Medication History or Eligibility transactions.

“We strongly encourage all customers to upgrade to Practice Partner v11.0, Medisoft Clinical v19 SP1, or Lytec MD 2014 SP1 before the end of the year, and not wait until the deadline.  This not only ensures that they are compliant with Surescripts, but that they are also well positioned.”

McKesson also provided us with this information that is directly from Surescripts:

“Surescripts has worked with many of our customers to ensure compliance with our 10.6 Sunset Policy for Routing and Medication History, as well as Eligibility 5010A1, in support of CMS requirements.  If you are already in compliance, we appreciate your timely attention to this matter, and we recognize that this required a significant amount of work to be in compliance.

“If you are not yet in compliance, please consider this our final notification regarding upcoming deadlines.  In order to support your efforts to finalize your 10.6 deployment, we are granting a final deadline extension through December 31, 2014.  If you are not certified and fully deployed with 10.6 and/or 5010A1 requirements by January 1, 2015, you will be considered “out of compliance”.

“Beginning on July 1, 2015, Surescripts will reject all pre-10.6 or 4010 transactions and only users transacting on 10.6 and 5010A1 will be able to send routing, Medication History or Eligibility transactions.”

Being Prepared For The Future

Again, we want our customers to have the most up to date information and that is why we are posting about this.  If you have not upgraded to the latest version of Medisoft Clinical, Lytec MD or Practice Partner (v11),  you should not delay.  We highly recommend that you prioritize upgrading in the near future to make sure that you are in compliance with Surescripts and in a good position having the latest version of the software.  The only way to ensure that you are compliant with any regulatory changes such as this is to be on the latest version of your EHR software.

A note about Meaningful Use

Lastly, if you plan to meet meaningful use in 2015, that is another reason that you will need to upgrade to the latest EMR version.  Meaningful Use and Surescripts requirements are independent of each other.  You will need to be upgraded prior to January 1, 2015 if you plan to meet meaningful use.

If you need to schedule your version 11 upgrade, or if you have any questions about any of this information, please contact our office at (480) 730-3055.  Another option is that you can leave a comment or a question in the comments section below.  We’ll be sure to answer any questions that you submit.

Disclaimer: AZCOMP Technologies, Inc, (AZCOMP) is providing this material as an informational reference for healthcare providers. Although every reasonable effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information within these pages at the time of posting, the Medicare/Medicaid programs are constantly changing, and it is the sole responsibility of each provider to remain abreast of  program requirements by consulting the authorities and directly from their the source at http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/index.html