05/16/2012
In an Archives of Internal Medicine article, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, former CMS Administrator Donald Berwick and other experts provide information about the meaningful use program and offer guidance to help health care providers participate. MedPage Today.
05/16/2012
In a new issue brief, the National Association of Public Hospitals & Health Systems offered several recommendations for increasing flexibility in the meaningful use program, such as allowing a three-year timeframe between the Stage 1 and Stage 2 deadlines for the program. FierceHealthIT.
05/10/2012
The California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization has signed up more than 7,700 health care providers seeking to adopt electronic health records. It says members have earned more than $65 million in federal incentive payments. Healthcare IT News et al.
05/10/2012
CMS has published a list of health care providers, as well as a list of hospitals, that have received Medicare incentive payments through the meaningful use program. The agency plans to update the lists, which are organized by state, on a quarterly basis. Government Health IT.
05/09/2012
The American College of Cardiology, the Certification Commission for Health IT, the Medical Group Management Association and the National Committee for Quality Assurance recently submitted comments on Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. CMIO et al.
05/08/2012
Yesterday, the American Medical Association and 98 state and specialty medical societies sent a letter to CMS indicating that some of the proposed criteria for Stage 2 of the meaningful use program would be cumbersome for physicians to implement. Several other industry stakeholders and consumer advocacy groups also submitted comments on the proposed rules. Healthcare IT News et al.
05/08/2012
During the American Hospital Association's annual meeting, acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner acknowledged some of the hospital industry's concerns about Stage 2 of the meaningful use program and said CMS is reviewing stakeholders' feedback. Modern Healthcare et al.
05/07/2012
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's Electronic Health Record Association is calling for Stage 2 of the meaningful use program to include fewer clinical quality measures and more time for EHR upgrades. Healthcare IT News, Health Data Management.
05/03/2012
Several advocates have criticized the American Hospital Association for recommending looser patient access requirements in its comment letter on Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. AHA said it supports a 30-day window for providing patients with access to their health data after discharge, rather than the 36-hour timeframe proposed by CMS. Health Data Management et al.
05/03/2012
Yesterday, members of the Health IT Policy Committee discussed whether Stage 2 of the meaningful use program should allow licensed professionals and scribes to enter orders into electronic health record systems on behalf of physicians. Healthcare IT News.
05/03/2012
The Premier healthcare alliance has submitted comments on the proposed rules for Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. The group urged CMS to publish the Stage 2 final rules by August to avoid compromising hospitals' ability to meet program criteria by 2014. Healthcare IT News.
05/01/2012
In a letter to CMS, the American Hospital Association said that the meaningful use program might be too ambitious to achieve its goals. Meanwhile, Rep. Renee Ellmers is urging CMS to exempt certain health care providers from penalties if they fail to achieve meaningful use. Bloomberg et al.
05/01/2012
In letters to two federal agencies, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives recommends the creation of a 90-day reporting period for the first year in which health care providers attest to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. Modern Healthcare et al.
05/01/2012
A Government Accountability Office report recommends that CMS take certain steps to improve its process for verifying that health care providers qualify for incentive payments through the meaningful use program. For example, GAO suggests that CMS consider conducting more prepayment verifications for the Medicare meaningful use program. Health Data Management et al.
04/27/2012
A new report from Fitch Ratings finds that electronic health record incentive payments from the meaningful use program helped increase the bottom line of for-profit hospital companies by nearly $400 million last year. The report's authors said that last year's meaningful use incentive payments were "modest" and that they expect to see larger payments in 2012 and 2013. Modern Healthcare.