Meaningful Use
The final rule for meaningful use is here, and now begins the transformation. Now begins the hard work for hospitals and physician practices that have to make sure their technology means something. No one we’ve spoken with in the healthcare field has ever suggested they wanted to use technology for technology’s sake – just to put what they have on paper in electronic form.
Continuing on the theme of Monday’s blog on driving critical mass, two significant medical certification boards - the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) - have announced their intention to make health IT deployment a standard in their assessment and certification of physician competency.
Hospital CIOs across the country reviewed the final rule on meaningful use of health IT with some relief that the government had given up its all-or-nothing approach.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on July 8 a 234-page notice of proposed rulemaking on health IT privacy and security that promises to strengthen existing laws.
Federal officials released the final rule on meaningful use July 13, a rule sets the criteria for physicians and hospitals to qualify for thousands of dollars in stimulus funding incentives for the adoption of electronic health records.
Though many fear the timetable is cutting things too close, federal officials and industry insiders paint a picture of everything coming together in time for providers to have their electronic health record products certified to meet the meaningful use requirements by Oct. 1, when data collection is first allowed.
Commercial payers don't come to mind when you think of health IT adoption, but many have been active in the area for quite a while.
CSC Global Healthcare, a Falls Church, Va.-based research group has developed and launched a new online community with the intent of cultivating a network healthcare executives who can discuss the final rule on the first stage of meaningful use.
The final rule on the meaningful use of EHRs may have been released three weeks ago, but the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid are not idly standing by.
The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) announced Wednesday the formation of the National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation (NDHI), a forum in which leaders from private sector healthcare, government, academia and patient and consumer organizations will work together toward consensus on issues affecting healthcare innovation.