On December 30, 2009, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published proposed requirements for the EHR Incentive Programs. Their proposed rule would be used to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment ACT of 2009.
There are two EHR incentive programs: Medicare and Medicaid. The Medicare EHR incentive program pays incentives to eligible professionals for their meaningful use of a certified EHR. The Medicaid EHR incentive program provides incentive payment to eligible professionals for implementing or upgrading a certified EHR or for meaningful use. Eligible providers may participate in only one program and must designate which they prefer.
Meaningful use in Stage 1 of the incentive program proposal includes 25 objectives/measures for eligible professionals and 23 for eligible hospitals. Stage 1 focuses on:
- electronic capture of health information in a coded format
- using that information to track key clinical conditions
- communicating that information for care coordination
- report initiation of the quality measures & public health information
A 60-day comment period for the proposed rule has been provided by CMS. Details may be found at:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Recovery/11_HealthIT.asp
http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-31217_PI.pdf