Meaningful Use Update
Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued the final rule concerning meaningful use of electronic health records looking to qualify for the government incentives intended to increase the implementation of EHRs in the American healthcare system. A collective sigh of relief could be heard in offices of organizations around the country who have been scrambling to try to develop a game plan to meet the requirements outlined in the interim final draft. The final rule was drafted with an eye towards concerns that the requirements in the interim final rule were unattainable. By breaking the requirements down into two sets, a “Core” set of 15 items that all must be implemented, and another “Menu” set of 10 additional items of which only 5 need to be implemented between 2011-2012, CMS has made the process of meeting the requirements appear attainable. The final rule presented by CMS provides a more manageable framework for implementation of the technologies and actually may provide an opportunity for the organizations implementing the electronic health records to get some meaningful use out of the this legislation.
