CCHIT Chairman, Dr. Mark Leavitt, releases new proposal for definition of "Meaningful Use".
The American Recovery and reinvestment Act authorizes the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide a reimbursement incentive for healthcare providers that demonstrate “meaningful use” of an approved electronic health record system (EHR). These incentive payments will begin in 2011 and gradually phase down. Starting in 2015, providers are expected to have adopted an approved EHR in compliance with the “meaningful use” definition or they will be subject to penalties under Medicare.
On June 16, 2009 the Meaningful Use Workgroup of the CCHIT submitted a definition of meaningful use to the Health IT Policy Committee of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this definition, the ultimate goal of meaningful use is to enable significant and measurable improvements in population health through a transformed health care delivery system. It was also recommended that the definition of “meaningful use” should depend on the healthcare setting in which it is employed.
Meaningful Use Objectives
The overall objective of the meaningful use definition is to affect health outcomes and set policy priorities, as well as establish specific care goals. The objectives for accomplishing this task are 3 tiered:
- 2011: The goal is to electronically capture, in an encrypted format, and report health information to track key clinical conditions.
- 2013: The goal is to guide and support care processes and care coordination.
- 2015: The goal is to improve performance and support care processes on key health system outcomes.
Each phase will be accompanied by a set of rules and measures intended to reach those specific goals such as reporting clinical documentation, quality measures, clinical outcome measures, efficiency measures and safety measures.
According to Dr. Mark Leavitt; Chairman of CCHIT, defining how meaningful use will be measured is an urgent priority. In Dr Leavitt’s testimony to the National subcommittee on Vital and Health Statistics the documentation of meaningful use should be fully electronic and not manual. Also, certified EHR’s should be capable of collecting meaningful use measures as a part of their normal operation.
In accomplishing this, certified EHR’s should do the following:
- Register their usage by eligible health care providers.
- Generate and display a meaningful use dashboard.
- Electronically submit dashboard statistics to a designated entity.
- Retain audit trails for future verification.
Please, contact your software provider to find out of your EHR meets, or will meet, these requirements. If you would like more information on how to qualify for this program, or would like to take a look at our qualifying options, give us a call at 888-465-5645 and we'll be happy to help.
Harold, Account Executive
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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