Meaningful Use

Patient portals have proven to be far more than just a convenient tool for patients to access their health information. These Web-based portals are also doing big things for improving care.

A rural Montana hospital has filed suit against a big name electronic health record system provider alleging the company violated its contract by both failing to install an EHR system by the set deadline and not providing a system that meets 2014 federal meaningful use criteria.

With Congress working on a long-term Medicare "SGR fix" in the recent short-term budget deal, lawmakers laid down seeds for addressing issues such as value-based reimbursement and EHR compatibility.

The push for meaningful use Stage 3 has reached a point where a confluence of power structures are ready for more breakthroughs -- hence, the impetus for collaboration among IHE USA, ONC and S&I Framework, officials from these groups say.

As Karen DeSalvo, MD, prepares to take the reins as national coordinator for health information technology in 2014, here are 10 aspects of her background that may help define how she'll carry on the crucial work of her predecessors.

In an eventful 10 years for healthcare, meaningful use made an unmistakable mark as vendors large and small took advantage of an unprecedented opportunity. As one observer puts it: "Obama's stimulus was the catalyst that lit this industry up five years ago. We haven't looked back since."

"In 2003, fewer than 5 percent of hospitals in the U.S. had any form of electronic records," said David Brailer, MD, who became the nation's first "heath information czar" in 2004. "A smaller percentage of doctors' offices had them, probably less than 1 percent. It was something everyone knew was inevitable, but the fire had not been lit," he tells Healthcare IT News.

A joint CMS and ONC blog post today divulges the government's intentions to extend the timeline for meaningful use Stages 2 and 3. Under the revised schedule, Stage 2 would be extended through 2016 and Stage 3 would begin in 2017 for those providers that have completed at least two years in Stage 2.

Healthcare cloud services company ClearDATA Network closed an over-subscribed $14 million Series B funding round. The funding provides the company with capital to maximize its growth opportunities and momentum in the market, says ClearDATA President and CEO Darin Brannan.

As providers ready for meaningful use Stage 2 attestation and policymakers start designing Stage 3, CMS announced that the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs have paid out just shy of $17 billion to spur adoption thus far.