Confusion Around “Meaningful Use” of Electronic Health Records

By Holly Hayes

Congress has mandated the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and put billions of dollars behind the mandate. Hospitals and professionals interested in seeking these funds need to achieve “meaningful use” (MU) of electronic health records.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) states:

The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals as they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The programs begin in 2011.

These incentive programs are designed to support providers in this period of Health IT transition and instill the use of EHRs in meaningful ways to help our nation to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient health care.

The proposed Stage 1 criteria for meaningful use focus on electronically capturing health information in a coded format, using that information to track key clinical conditions, communicating that information for care coordination purposes, and initiating the reporting of clinical quality measures and public health information.

Read more at the CMS website here.

The American Hospital Association reported on a recent survey of hospital chief information officers (CIO) regarding the implementation of EHRs and their concern with the mandate:

Eight in 10 hospital chief information officers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute said they are concerned or very concerned they will not be able to demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records within the federally established deadline of 2015. “Without a set of final rules in place, lack of clarity around certain criteria and reporting requirements has left some CIOs at an impasse, and that’s why requesting files under HITECH is the best solution for these reporting. “Fueling the concern are availability of skilled IT resources, infrastructure requirements, vendor readiness, and effecting behavioral change across the organization. More than one-third of CIOs are concerned or very concerned about vendor readiness overall. In particular, 44% of CIOs said their Health Information Exchange (HIE) vendors are not prepared for MU implementation or are undecided.”

The findings are based on a survey of 120 members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. Last month, 53 organizations representing hospitals, physicians and other providers, including the AHA, called on CMS to revise its proposed rule defining “meaningful use” of EHRs. A final rule is expected out soon. Read more here.

As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is implemented, we will keep you updated on areas of potential conflict. We welcome any comments on the demonstration of “meaningful use” of EHRs.

Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at: holly@karlbayer.com.