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Proposed "Meaningful Use" Criteria Unveiled Just before the New Year HHS issued proposed regulations that list the "meaningful use" criteria that healthcare providers must meet in order to qualify for federal funding of their information technology projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Also posted was an interim final rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology that sets initial standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for EHR technology. Both rules are available for viewing in a draft format and will be published in the Federal Register on Jan. 13, with a 60-day comment period effective at that time. The interim final rule will become effective 30 days after publication. Under the proposed rule, CMS will define meaningful use in three stages with more expansive requirements for 2013 and 2015. The first stage covers initial criteria for 2011 and 2012. The Stage 1 criteria for eligible professionals and hospitals contain many of the requirements in the "matrix" that the HIT Policy Committee recommended last summer, with some modifications. These include use of CPOE, implementing drug interaction and formulary checks, maintaining an updated problem list, recording specific demographic data and vital signs, incorporating lab results in the EHR as structured data, and implementing five clinical decision support rules, among other requirements.
Also among the criteria is a requirement to check insurance eligibility electronically from public and private payers, and to submit claims electronically to public and private payers. If finalized, this would be a major enhancement of the HIPAA administrative simplification provisions. Requirements recommended by the HIT Policy Committee, but not adopted in Stage 1 include documenting a progress note for each encounter, recording of advanced directives and providing access to patient-specific education resources upon request. NASL will be submitting comments on how these criteria and related EHR functions could support those receiving long term and post acute care services. The following provides links to the rules and allows for electronic submission of comments. http://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/defining-moment-meaningful-use
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