Healthcare IT Update

HITECH: Physicians Must Meet 25 Criteria To Achieve ‘Meaningful Use’

While waiting for CMS guidelines, some practices have dragged heels on EHR adoption Practices that have been waiting for CMS to define the term “meaningful use” are finally in luck. But as is always the case when the feds are involved, don’t look for a quick one-sentence definition. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 (ARRA) offers annual bonuses to practices that show “meaningful use” of electronic health records, and in 2015, practices that aren’t showing meaningful use will face penalties. However, the government was slow to issue a definition of the term “meaningful use,” causing some physicians to delay  adoption of EHRs because they didn’t want to risk being a non-meaningful user. On Dec. 29, CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced that the definition was finally available for public comment. “CMS’s proposed regulation would define and specify how to demonstrate ‘meaningful…

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It’s Here: CMS’s Proposed Rule Implementing the HITECH Act

We’ve got the links to help you learn more about the rule. Well, it looks like CMS meant what it said and said what it meant, despite the skeptics out there. Like a particularly deft limbo dancer, the agency made its end-of-2009 deadline for a proposed rule implementing the HITECH Act. The 555-page document landed online with a ‘thud’ on December 30th. Those of you who want to save this heavy reading project until after your New Year’s revelries can go here for some fact sheets. You’ll learn nifty new HIT acronyms like ‘EP,’ which should make you the hit of any cocktail party. The public comment period for the rule is 60 days. Stay tuned to HIT News for in-depth analysis of the rule, as well as a roundup of what healthcare providers are saying about it.

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