FINAL RULE PUBLISHED TODAY BY CMS & HHS | Date: 07/13/2010
Both CMS and HHS issued today the final rule for meaningful use. Below is an excerpt from today's press release and has been printed in its entirety by going online to www.SMARTMD.com and click on our SMARTMD blog page. It was on June 4, 2010 that SMARTMD announced the general availability of its own EMR 2.5 (Electronic Medical Record) product, providing a pain free path for transcription customers to migrate to electronic charts in advance of impending government regulations. The SMARTMD suite of services – transcription, billing, and EMR – provides a one-stop solution for small to medium practices.
“This latest release of our EMR 2.5 product and the final rule being published is perfect timing for our clients and today's physician. Our solution seamlessly integrates with our dictation services and clients can upgrade to our EMR with minimal disruption to their business. And now as you will read, CMS and HHS have created great flexibility in achieving meaningful use” states SMARTMD President, Nandip Kothari.
One of the major changes in the final rule now requires providers to meet a “core” group of objectives, such as electronic prescribing, providing patients who request it an electronic copy of their health information and maintaining an active medication list. NOW, instead of 25, physicians must meet 15 of those core requirements, and hospitals must meet 14.
Providers must also choose 10 measures from a “menu set” of procedures they have to meet, but may defer up to five of them to the next stage, creating flexibility for today's business physician. The measures from this “a la carte” set include incorporating clinical lab results in EHRs, creating a summary of care as patient transitions through providers and maintain an up-to-date problems list of diagnoses.
As you will read below, a two-track approach has been established to create even further flexibility and to ensure that the most basic elements of meaningful EHR use will be met by all providers qualifying for incentive payments.
For example, in the proposed rule physicians had to prescribe 75 percent of their prescriptions electronically, while in the final rule that level is 40 percent. The number of clinical decision support orders also is down to one from five.
SECRETARY SEBELIUS ANNOUNCES FINAL RULES TO SUPPORT MEANINGFUL USE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
WASHINGTON – July 13, 2010 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced final rules to help improve Americans' health, increase safety and reduce health care costs through expanded use of electronic health records (EHR).
“For years, health policy leaders on both sides of the aisle have urged adoption of electronic health records throughout our health care system to improve quality of care and ultimately lower costs,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Today, with the leadership of the President and the Congress, we are making that goal a reality.” Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified EHR technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. One of the two regulations announced today defines the “meaningful use” objectives that providers must meet to qualify for the bonus payments, and the other regulation identifies the technical capabilities required for certified EHR technology.
Announcement of today's regulations marks the completion of multiple steps laying the groundwork for the incentive payments program. With “meaningful use” definitions in place, EHR system 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 health care can begin.
To read the entire press release issued today, go online to www.SMARTMD.com and click on our SMARTMD blog page. |
