Industry expert shares insights on meaningful use announcement

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) issued a proposed rule yesterday that gives eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals more flexibility in how they use certified electronic health record technology to meet meaningful use.

Moments after releasing an analysis of an important announcement from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) May 20 regarding new flexibility in meeting meaningful use reporting requirements  under the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act, Russell P. Branzell, president and CEO of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), spoke first to the Mark Hagland, Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Informatics, Behavioral Healthcare's a sister publication, regarding CHIME’s analysis of the CMS announcement.

A statement released by CHIME noted that “According to the proposed rule, eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals will be allowed to use 2011 edition certified EHR [electronic health record] technology (CEHRT), 2014 Edition CEHRT, or a combination of the two editions to meet meaningful use requirements in 2014. Because providers are at various stages and are scheduled to meet different stage requirements in 2014, CMS and ONC also have proposed giving providers the option of meeting  Stage 1 requirements or Stage 2 requirements. For example, if you are scheduled to attest to Stage 2 in 2014, the proposed changes offer the option of attesting to revised Stage 1, or “2014 Stage 1,” objectives and measures, instead of Stage 2 objectives and measures.”

Read the entire interview here.