Meaningful Use
On December 30, 2009 HHS released the interim final rule that defines the criteria by which the Electronic Health Records systems will be certified under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The law requires physicians to demonstrate their 'meaningful use' of a certified Electronic Health Record in order to claim between $44,000 in Medicare and $64,000 in Medicaid stimulus incentives, which first become available in 2011.
The rules that were proposed last month constitute the first of what will be three distinct stages of meaningful use criteria to be unveiled separately between now and 2013, officials said.
The initial Stage 1 set of criteria, part of what is described as an “evolution” of meaningful use, would focus on collecting data electronically, sharing information with other providers and patients, and reporting quality measures to the government.
A second stage of criteria will be proposed by the end of 2011 and will focus on structured information exchange and continuous quality improvement. Stage 3 criteria will be unveiled by the end of 2013 and will focus on decision support for “national high priority conditions” and population health.
Jonathan Blum, director of the Center for Medicare Management (CMS) said that "CMS will establish stricter and more extensive criteria for demonstrating meaningful use over time.”
The Meaningful Use Rule outlined in much greater detail what physicians and other participating providers will need to do to qualify for the incentive payments.
-Providers must prove Meaningful Use of their EHR for at least 90 continuous days in 2011 in order to earn an incentive, and then for the entire year each subsequent year.
-Physicians must prove that they have met 29 different functional objectives with their use of the EHR product to be considered “meaningful users”. These objectives include computerized physician order entry (CPOE), the use of clinical decision alerts, incorporation of lab results into their EHR as discrete data, ePrescribing and electronic information distribution to patients.
-Clinical quality measures will must be submitted by a provider on a Core set of measures, as well as a specialty-specific subgroup; providers will be able to file for an exception if none of the 89 proposed measures matches with their specialty.
-Physicians will be paid on a rolling basis as soon as they have proven to CMS that they have met all the functional objectives of the Meaningful Use requirement and have hit the maximum amount for the year. CMS will then issue a single, annual, consolidated payment.
-All reporting will be done by attestation in 2011, moving to an electronic form in later years.
