Posts Tagged Meaningful Use
Interoperability designated major component of “meaningful use”
Posted by Jim Denny in ARRA/Stimulus, Interoperability on January 5th, 2010
We now have our first look at the official shape “meaningful use” of electronic health record (EHR) technology will likely take – in the near future, at least. As many had anticipated, one of the principal underlying themes is interoperability.
The long-anticipated proposed rule defining meaningful use finally was released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Dec. 30. On the same day, we also received the interim final rule setting initial EHR technology standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). You can view draft copies of both rules at www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx.
As it turns out, CMS will define meaningful use objectives in three distinct stages. Providers who meet the criteria in each of the three stages may be eligible for thousands of dollars in incentive bonuses through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In this proposal, however, CMS has only defined the requirements for Stage 1, which focuses on:
Real and reasonable progress towards healthcare reform
Posted by Jim Denny in ARRA/Stimulus, EMR, Healthcare Reform, Interoperability on August 31st, 2009
The summer of 2009 will no doubt go down as one of the most stimulating in the history of healthcare. The specter of reform, technological interoperability and incentive/penalty programs generated lively – to say the least – debate.
But in the midst of the confusion and hyperbole (e.g., “death panels,” special-interest strangleholds, socialized medicine) real and reasonable progress has been seen in the areas of meaningful use and electronic health record (EHR) certification.
Significant strides were made in finalizing the definition of “meaningful use,” an ambiguous concept that had left the industry wondering how it could be applied as a benchmark to measure EMR effectiveness, as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). By mid-summer the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), after a period of public comment, zeroed in on a definition: that meaningful use “enable significant and measurable improvements in population health through a transformed health care delivery system.” It likewise set goals for providers to accomplish by 2011:
- Allowing patients to access their health records in a timely manner;
- Developing capabilities to exchange health information where possible;
- Implementing at least one clinical decision support rule for a specialty or clinical priority;
- Providing patients with electronic copies of discharge instructions and procedures;
- Submitting insurance claims electronically; and
- Verifying insurance eligibility electronically when possible. Read the rest of this entry »