After an ONC representative indicated that changes were unlikely for the EHR Incentive Program (aka Meaningful Use timeline), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) posted an announcement on Friday afternoon (12/6). Robert Tagalicod (Office of E-Health Standards & Services at CMS) and Jacob Reider (Acting…

We’re getting close to the January 1, 2014 Stage 2 MU start – and so far, not a word from CMS or ONC about any changes to MU 2 despite major concerns expressed by several organizations (see post from October 11th). There are several major issues with the Medicare EHR Incentive Program: With less than…

John Halamaka, co-chair of the Health IT Standards Committee and CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center offered some advice to the next National Coordinator on his blog, Life as a Healthcare CIO. Here are his general recommendations: ICD-10: Consider voluntary transactions for October 2014 and provide a 6 month grace period before enforcing the…

As of September 25, 2013, the list of EHR products certified for Meaningful Use Stage 2 is quite limited. Seventeen Ambulatory EHR products have been certified for Base EHR; of these, only five ambulatory products have been certified for recommended adult core CQMs for Eligible Providers. In a September 25 article in Modern Healthcare, Joseph…

As the deadline for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use starts closing in, there has been more chatter and discussion about whether eligible professionals and hospitals are ready. On one side of the argument is that a delay in MU Stage 2 would slow the introduction of some important patient engagement features/functions as well as delay…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website continues to grow with new resources. The latest is an everything-you-need-to-know guide to Stage 2 Meaningful Use set to start in 2014 for those eligible professionals and hospitals participating in the Medicare program that reported for Stage 1 in 2011–2012. EPs/EHs that attested to Stage 1 in 2013 (under…

AmericanEHR Partners is proud to announce that we have just incorporated Meaningful Use attestation data into our EHR product and Vendor profiles, and EHR comparison searches. We’ve also added an advanced Meaningful Use attestation search tool, allowing AmericanEHR members to see attestation data for 444 certified EHR products. Through collaboration with the Office of the…

Two weeks ago, I reviewed the Basic and Intermediate core metrics for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use with the perspective of ambulatory care. As a refresher, I defined the categories as follows: Basic: requirements that should be standard processes for most practices Intermediate: requirements that require additional work, new processes, but are probably reasonable expectations…

In case you haven’t noticed, the final rule for Stage 2 Meaningful Use was published August 23, 2012. While most people using Certified EHR Technology are still working through Stage 1, and we’re just getting reports from the Regional Extension Centers about challenges from the field, health IT users need to consider the expectations set…

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have just released the Stage 2 Meaningful Use regulations for the Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs.  The regulations can be found at: CMS – http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-21050_PI.pdf ONC – http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-20982_PI.pdf A fact sheet on CMS’s final rule is…

In the July issue of the JAMIA, Peggy Wagner et al provide an interesting report on the use of personal health records (PHR) in an effort to improve hypertension control. In this well-designed study, 446 patients were randomized to either receive access to a PHR connected to the patient’s electronic medical record or usual care…