The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has corrected inconsistencies and made minor revisions to its final rule describing the requirements for demonstrating meaningful use to be eligible for the electronic health record incentive program.
The document published in the Dec. 29 Federal Register fixes typographical and technical errors identified in the final rule that was published in July.
The correction notice is meant "to ensure the accuracy of the final rule," CMS said. The revisions are effective immediately to avoid any possible delays to the date when healthcare providers can begin to receive incentive payments.
CMS tweaks information as basic as contact phone numbers, but also language that will make meaningful use criteria more clear as physicians and hospitals begin to use electronic health records to improve quality of care and qualify for incentives.
CMS clarifies one of the factors when providers calculate the clinical summary objective, for example. The agency changed "unique patients" to "office visits" as the underlying factor to measure the number of office visits for which the patient received a clinical summary within three business days. The resulting percentage must be more than 50 percent to meet the objective.
The agency also corrects a sentence about using clinical decision support by decreasing it to one rule instead of five rules to reflect the final regulation, and that the one clinical decision support rule does not have to be linked to a specific clinical quality measure.
Clinical decision support combines mechanisms, such as alerts, with patient-specific information to improve providers' quality of care.
CMS modified its language in a discussion about "permissible" prescriptions for electronically prescribing. In the original rule, CMS noted that it restricted just one category of controlled substances established by the Department of Justice. CMS changed its wording to expand its prohibition on e-prescribing to other categories of controlled substances listed by Justice to align the meaningful use regulation with the Drug Enforcement Agency's final rule on e-prescribing of controlled substances.
CMS will open registration Jan. 3 for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. States administer the Medicaid incentive program, and Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas will be the first group out of the gate.
In February, registration will open in California, Missouri, and North Dakota, according to CMS. Other states likely will launch their Medicaid EHR incentive programs during the spring and summer of 2011.
Eligible providers who wish to participate in the Medicaid programs must initiate registration at CMS' registration site, but complete the process through an eligibility verification site governed by their state Medicaid agency.
