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.
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 provides a 60-day comment period on the proposed rule, beginning on the date of publication.
In a related announcement, ONC has issued an
Interim Final Rule (IFR) [PDF - 247 KB] that specifies the Secretary’s adoption of an initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for electronic health record (EHR) technology.
Both the
HIT Policy Committee and the
HIT Standards Committee provided recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information that will help CMS develop the initial criteria for meaningful use and assist in planning for any criteria expansion for the future incentive programs. More than 800 public comments were received on the HIT Policy Committee’s initial recommendations.
In addition, helpful input was provided at the April 28-29, 2009, hearing of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics and at 21 listening sessions that CMS conducted in June.
