At a Health IT Policy Committee meeting on Wednesday, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari said he supports delaying by one year Stage 2 of the meaningful use program for health care providers attesting to meeting Stage 1 criteria this year, Health Data Management reports.
Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments (Goedert, Health Data Management, 7/6).
Details of the Delay
The Health IT Policy Committee recently accepted recommendations on the delay from its meaningful use work group. The adjustment aims to give health care providers who are attesting to Stage 1 in 2011, as well as vendors, adequate time to prepare for Stage 2, which is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2013 (iHealthBeat, 6/9).
Mostashari said the delay would provide enough time for this year's Stage 1 attesters to prepare for a more "robust" Stage 2 (Health Data Management, 7/6).
Tiger Team Recommendations
In related news, the Health IT Policy Committee on Wednesday approved two recommendations from the privacy and security "Tiger Team" on EHR capabilities to correct and amend a patient's medical records.
The recommendations state that:
- For Stage 2 of the meaningful use program, certified EHR systems should have the ability to support changes to medical data, as well as a health care provider's compliance with HIPAA when responding to patient requests to amend information; and
- By Stage 3 of the meaningful use program, certified EHR tools should have the capability to send edited information to health care providers to whom the data already have been sent (Goedert, Health Data Management, 7/6).