1.15.10 – CMS releases proposed HIT ‘meaningful use’ definition
On December 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed rule defining “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs), while the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONHIT) issued an interim final rule that sets standards, specifications and certification criteria for EHR technology. Together, these rules set EHR adoption requirements that hospitals and physicians must meet under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to qualify for additional Medicare and Medicaid payments beginning in 2011 and to avoid significant payment penalties in 2015.
According to the proposed federal rules for “meaningful use” of EHRs and, in order to be eligible for federal Medicare or Medicaid bonus payments beginning in 2011, at least five rules for clinical decision support (CDS) should be implemented, in addition to keep up-to-date problem lists, write electronic prescriptions, have electronic drug interaction checking, incorporate data from test results into their electronic health records and keep patient vitals.
The updated rules contain several differences from earlier plans:
- Physician practices will only have to enter 80 percent of orders electronically, down from the 100 percent called for in recommendations issued last summer;
- The threshold for hospital use of computerized physician order entry is just 10 percent;
- For 2011 and 2012, hospitals would not have to be able to transmit orders electronically to pharmacies, labs or imaging centers; and
- Physicians will not have to record progress notes in the EHR.
ONCHIT’s interim final rule will take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. More information is available at: HHS press release, CMS proposed rule on meaningful use of EHRs and the ONC interim final rule on standards and certification.
