Overview#
Meaningful Use is a set of criteria for
Electronic Health Record (
EHR) described in
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health.
Meaningful Use main components are:
- The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing.
- The use of certified EHR technology for electronic Health Information Exchange to improve quality of Health Care.
- The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.
Title IV of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health act promises maximum incentive payments for Medicaid to those who adopt and use "certified EHRs"
Meaningful use stage 1, stage 2, stage 3
Meaningful use is divided into three stages.
- Stage 1, which began in 2010, focused on promoting adoption of Electronic Health Records.
- Stage 2, finalized in late 2012, increases thresholds of criteria compliance and introduces more clinical decision support, care-coordination requirements and rudimentary patient engagement rules.
- Stage 3, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rulemakers are writing from late 2014 through early-to-mid 2016, will focus on robust Health Information Exchange as well as other more fully formed meaningful use guidelines introduced in earlier stages.
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, organizations that are eligible for the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program and achieve meaningful use by 2014 will be eligible for incentive payments; those who have failed to achieve that standard by 2015 will be penalized, unless Congress overrides that portion of the 2009 HITECH Act that codified CMS's rulemaking timeline into law.
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