Complying with the government's "meaningful use" definition to qualify for federal incentives will require a balancing act between improving patient care and using IT, says an expert from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Martin Harris, MD, offered an overview of the proposed rule during a Web seminar held Wednesday, but warned his advice isn't meant to replace the need for legal counsel.
Harris is CIO and chairman of the technology division at the Cleveland Clinic, executive director of the e-Cleveland Clinic and chairman-elect of the HIMSS board of directors. He's also a member of the HIT Standards Committee, though he said his comments at the Webinar don't represent the committee.
The Webinar was designed to familiarize viewers with the proposed rule and is the first in a series to be hosted by HIMSS. Subsequent Webinars will delve deeper into the meaningful use proposal and explain how they will affect healthcare providers and organizations, Harris said.
According to Harris, the meaningful use definition, unveiled on Dec. 30, 2009, is designed to engage patients and families, while ensuring privacy and security, and enable doctors to start thinking about broader public health efforts and the elimination of health disparities.
"The challenge is to strike an appropriate balance between all of those goals," Harris said. "It involves the provider side of an organization as well as vendors."
Harris said the government was determined not to set the bar too high at first, while ensuring that the process doesn't stymie IT innovation.
Hospitals seeking bonus incentives under the proposed meaningful use regulation must be able to use electronic health records in a prescribed way at a provider level, effectively communicate across the continuum of care and measure what they are doing through a series of metrics, according to Harris.
Hospitals will be paid bonuses according to the fiscal calendar year, beginning Oct. 1, 2011. Providers will work on a Medicare calendar year, beginning Jan. 1, 2011. The rule has allotted for providers to use electronic health records for 90 continuous days to satisfy the meaningful use requirement in the first year. Subsequent years will require meaningful use for an entire year, Harris said.
The rule will be issued Jan. 13 in the Federal Register, followed by a 60-day comment period. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will review the comments and issue a final rule sometime in spring of 2010, Harris said.
In the standards regulation, also released Dec. 30, the HHS and ONC are calling for four areas of compliance, according to Harris. These are vocabulary, information exchange, transportation of information and privacy and security.
The ONC has yet to release proposed regulations on the certification that will be required for products used to comply with meaningful use, Harris said.
