Today marks the start of a 60-day public comment period for the federal government's recently proposed "meaningful use" regulations, Government Health IT reports.
Last month, CMS released a notice of proposed rulemaking that defined how health care providers can demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs to qualify for federal incentive payments.
At the same time, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released an interim final rule describing certification standards for EHR technology.
Today, both the CMS notice of proposed rulemaking and the ONC interim final rule were published in the Federal Register.
CMS' proposed meaningful use rule allows for public comments for 60 days, or until March 15. Officials then will revise the regulation and release a final rule sometime in the spring.
ONC's interim final rule on certification standards is scheduled to become effective in 30 days, but officials will continue to accept public comments over the next 60 days. ONC then will consider revisions and issue a final rule on EHR certification.
Later this year, the agency is scheduled to release a notice of proposed rulemaking on the process for EHR certification (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 1/13).
Feedback Comes Rolling In
Some stakeholders already have started offering feedback on the proposed meaningful use rules.
Officials from the American Hospital Association have expressed concern that the rules:
- Impose a needlessly fast timeline for EHR adoption;
- Include too many requirements for EHR functionality; and
- Require health care providers to develop new systems to measure their compliance with the criteria.
In addition, the Medical Group Management Association warned that the rules:
- Call for unrealistic use of computerized physician order entry systems; and
- Fail to provide sufficient time for health care providers to furnish electronic copies of medical records (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 1/13).