CMS issues final 'meaningful use' EHR rules

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued two final rules in support of the "meaningful use" requirements for the U.S. healthcare IT stimulus plan.

One of the two regulations defines the meaningful use objectives that eligible healthcare professionals and hospital providers must meet to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified electronic health record (EHR) technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. The other regulation -- issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) -- identifies the technical capabilities required for certified EHR technology, CMS said.

CMS said that with the meaningful use definitions in place, EHR vendors can ensure that their systems deliver the required capabilities, providers can be assured that the system they acquire will support achievement of meaningful use objectives, and a concentrated five-year national initiative to adopt and use electronic records in healthcare can begin.

Key changes in the final CMS rule from the earlier proposed rule include:

• Greater flexibility with respect to eligible professionals and hospitals in meeting and reporting certain objectives for demonstrating meaningful use. The final rule divides the objectives into a "core" group of required objectives and a "menu set" of procedures from which providers may choose any five to defer in 2011-2012. This gives providers latitude to pick their own path toward full EHR implementation and meaningful use, according to CMS.

• An objective of providing condition-specific patient education resources for both eligible professionals (EP) and eligible hospitals, and the objective of recording advance directives for eligible hospitals, in line with recommendations from the Health Information Technology Policy Committee.

• A definition of a hospital-based eligible professional as one who performs substantially all of his or her services in an inpatient hospital setting or emergency room only, which conforms to the Continuing Extension Act of 2010.

• Critical-access hospitals are included within the definition of acute care hospital for the purpose of incentive program eligibility under Medicaid.