2010-01-14

On December 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued a regulation on meaningful use and a regulation on health information technology standards and certification. These regulations will be used to implement the electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs enacted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

ARRA established programs to provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid that adopt and make "meaningful use" of certified EHR technology. Incentive payments may begin as soon as October 2010 to eligible hospitals. Incentive payments to other eligible providers may begin in January 2011.

The proposed rule would define the term "meaningful EHR user" as an eligible professional or eligible hospital that, during the specified reporting period, demonstrates meaningful use of certified EHR technology in a form and manner that improves quality, safety, and efficiency of health-care delivery, reduces health-care disparities, engages patients and families, improves care coordination, improves population and public health, and ensures adequate privacy and security protections for personal health information.

The proposed rule would define meaningful use for the Medicare EHR incentive programs. It proposes one definition that would apply to eligible professionals participating in the Medicare fee-for-service and the Medicare Advantage EHR incentive programs. These definitions also would serve as the minimum standard for eligible professionals participating in the Medicaid EHR incentive program. CMS provides a 60-day comment period on the proposed rule.

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