The Golden Rule: Version 2.0


ONC, CMS Releases Final Meaningful Use Stage 2 Rules WRITTEN BY DON FLUCKINGER


M


EANINGFUL use Stage 2 dropped late in the summer, as the ONC and CMS officials


released final rules, respectively, for vendors to tailor electronic health record (EHR) systems for certification— and for health care providers to reap Medicaid and Medicare incentive checks for implementation of those systems. The final rules came loaded with answers from stakeholder comments collected since the proposed rule debuted earlier this year, with many adjustments made for the benefit of specialist physicians.


Time Is on Your Side The Centers for Medicaid and


Medicare Services (CMS) rule also extends deadlines for Stage 2


attestation for 2011’s early adopters. Originally, the hospitals that have already been through Stage 1 would have had to attest in 2013, but that’s been extended to 2014. This means eligible professionals (EPs) and hospitals will have to complete their 90-day reporting period in that year. The reasoning behind that


extension not only was to give relief to providers, but also to give software vendors more time to meet certification criteria, according to representatives from CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in a conference call with reporters. The meaningful use rule, too, adds that commenters sought relief because its deadlines came on top of ICD-10


2 CONNECTION/HEALTHCARE IT 2012.Q4


implementation schedules and health care reform implementation deadlines, too. “The changes that you see [in


the final rules] reflect that we are listening,” said Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national HIT coordinator. He added that the new criteria are


a shift in focus for the health IT field. Stage 1 pushed clinical data collection and bare-bones clinical decision support, while meaningful use Stage 2 focuses more on sharing patient data between providers, with public health agencies and with patients themselves.


The Many Voices of Stage 2 That includes getting vendors


in on the act and writing features into their software to enable secure,


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