Meaningful Use Summary
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide reimbursement incentives for eligible professionals and hospitals who are successful in becoming “meaningful users” of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. The Medicare EHR incentive program will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) that are meaningful users of certified EHR technology. The Medicaid EHR incentive program will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and hospitals for efforts to adopt, implement, or upgrade certified EHR technology or for meaningful use in the first year of their participation in the program and for demonstrating meaningful use during each of five subsequent years.
Rule Development
On December 30, 2009, CMS announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement provisions of the Recovery Act that provide incentive payments for the meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The proposed rule outlines provisions governing the EHR incentive programs, including defining the central concept of “meaningful use” of EHR technology. CMS’ goal is for the definition of meaningful use to be consistent with applicable provisions of Medicare and Medicaid law while continually advancing the contributions certified EHR technology can make to improving health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety. To accomplish this, CMS’ proposed rule would phase in more robust criteria for demonstrating meaningful use in three stages. CMS provided a 60-day comment period on the proposed rule, which concluded on March 15, 2010.
Source - healthhit.hhs.gov
