By Joy Hicks
1. What is Meaningful Use?
Meaningful use, as defined by CMS, is the use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to:
- Improve quality, safety, efficiency, care coordination, population, and public health
- Reduce health disparities
- Engage patients and their families in their health care
- Maintain privacy and security of protected health information (PHI)
2. There are 3 Main Components of Meaningful Use
There are three main components that qualify certified EHR technology as Meaningful Use.
- Track, record, and exchange information including computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders, electronic prescriptions (e-prescribing), check insurance verification and submit medical claims, exchange clinical information, maintain privacy and security, record patient demographics and vital signs, etc.
- Capture and submit quality measure data
- Provide patients with an electronic copy of PHI
3. Stages of Implementation
There are three stages to achieving Meaningful Use criteria.Stage 1: 2011 – 2012Includes e-prescribing, lab results into EHR’s, clinical summary sent to providers and patients, public health reporting and quality data reporting
There are three stages to achieving Meaningful Use criteria.Stage 1: 2011 – 2012Includes e-prescribing, lab results into EHR’s, clinical summary sent to providers and patients, public health reporting and quality data reporting
Stage 2: 2013 – 2016
Includes e-prescribing refills, patient PHI access, electronic summary record, health alerts, and immunization information
Stage 3: 2015 – 2016
Includes access to comprehensive patient data and automated real-time surveillance
4. Eligible Professional Core Objectives
- Use CPOE for medication, laboratory, and radiology orders
- Generate and transmit electronic prescriptions
- Record language, sex, race, ethnicity, and date of birth
- Record height & length, weight, blood pressure, body mass index, and growth charts
- Record smoking status
- Improve performance on high-priority medical conditions
- Provide patients access to view online, download, and transmit PHI within four business days
- Provide clinical summaries for each visit
- Protect electronic PHI through specific privacy and security measures
- Incorporate lab test results into EHR
- Generate patient lists by condition for reporting
- Set up and send reminder notifications for preventative care and follow-up care
- Using EHR, identify and provide patient specific education resources
- Perform medication reconciliation when necessary
- Provide a summary care record for each transition of care or referral
- Submit electronic data to immunization registries
- Use secure electronic messaging to communicate to patients
5. Eligible Hospital Core Objectives
- Use CPOE for medication, laboratory, and radiology orders
- Record language, sex, race, ethnicity, and date of birth
- Record height & length, weight, blood pressure, body mass index, and growth charts
- Record smoking status
- Improve performance on high-priority medical conditions
- Provide patients access to view online, download, and transmit hospital admission info
- Protect electronic PHI through specific privacy and security measures
- Incorporate lab test results into EHR
- Generate patient lists by condition for reporting
- Using EHR, identify and provide patient specific education resources
- Perform medication reconciliation when necessary
- Provide a summary care record for each transition of care or referral
- Submit electronic data to immunization registries
- Submit electronic reportable laboratory results to public health agencies
- Submit electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies
- Automatically track medications with an electronic medication administration record (eMAR)
6. Meaningful Use Timeline
- 2010 Certified EHR Technology Available
- January 2011 Registration for the EHR Incentive program begins
- April 2011 Attestation for the Medicare EHR Incentive program begins
- May 2011 EHR incentive payments begin
- November 2011 Nov 30th is the last day for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for 2011
- February 2012 Feb 29th is the last day for eligible professionals to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for 2011
- 2014 Last Year to Participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program
- 2015 Medicare Payment Adjustments Begin for Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals that are NOT Meaningful Users of Certified EHR Technology
- 2016
- Last Year to Receive a Medicare EHR Incentive Payment
- Last Year to Participate in the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program
- 2021 Last Year to Receive a Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment
