Meaningful Use

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January 18, 2010
Proposed Rules resource section added to Subscribers library. Links, articles, reports, and published comments related to “meaningful use” will be added as the rules become final. Login to access the subscriber pages.

January 13, 2010
ONC IFR and CMS NPRM are published in the federal register and are available for public comment. Comments can be made through Regulations.gov.

December 30, 2009
CMS issues a notice of proposed rulemaking  (NPRM) that outlines provisions governing the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs, including a proposed definition for the central concept of “meaningful use” of EHR technology.

December 15, 2009
HIT Policy Committee, Meaningful Use workgroup update presentation at December meeting.

November 3, 2009
HHS will update its Connect open-source interoperability toolkit to embed features that will help users achieve meaningful use of EHRs. Government HealthIT

October 1, 2009
An update from ONC David Blumenthal, “Meaningful” Progress Toward Electronic Health Information Exchange.

September 23, 2009
More Insights from Neil Calman on HIT Meaningful Use, article in Center for Information Therapy by Josh Seidman. Neil is a member of the HIT Policy Committee.

September 15, 2009
HIT Standards committee makes update to the “Meaningful Use Quality Measures Grid”. Meeting agenda, presentations, and materials can be found here.

August 20, 2009
ONC Blumenthal holds press conference. He continues to defend his position that final rule on Meaningful Use will be sometime in the spring of 2010 after a 60 day comment period at the end of this year.

August 14, 2009
HIT Policy Committee Meeting, Meaningful Use workgroup gives update presentation. Some highlights include:

  • the workgroup is happy with the 2011 measures
  • they are revisiting 2013 and 2015 measures to report in future meetings
  • 2011 area of concern and reviewing is specialty groups
  • 2011 – CPOE requirement for 10% of hospital orders could be MD and RN combined
  • An October Informational Hearing for 2013 and 2015 criteria

August 1, 2009
HealthIT.gov creates a new page for Meaningful Use.

Rule Development
Over the next several months, CMS will be working closely with the Office of the National Coordinator and other parts of HHS to develop the regulations that will govern the initial year of the incentives programs, including a definition of meaningful use for 2011.  The proposed rule, with a 60-day period for public comment, is targeted for publication in late 2009.

July 17, 2009
For meeting and recommendation summaries, read our post, How “Meaningful” was this week?

July 16, 2009
The HIT Policy Committee has approved revised recommendations from the workgroup at its July 16th meeting. View the revised matrix.

The Standards Committee Quality workgroup presented an update on their grid for meaningful use.

June 30, 2009
“Meaninful Use is going to be an evolving concept.” ONC Blumenthal was keynote at MIT’s HIT Symposium Tuesday morning. Commenting on the ambitious agenda, he says “We will not be successful unless we think of this as something with the purpose of changing individual health, population health and the efficiency of our healthcare system. That’s the brilliance of the meaningful use concept: To set goals that are about healthcare, and not about information technology.” Blumenthal also mapped out the timeline of initial rules published in the federal registry by December 2009, followed by a 60 day public comment period, putting the final rule for 2011 in place early in 2010.

Read Chip Means in HealthcareITnews.com on the speech.

June 26, 2009
Comment period ended for recommendations on meaningful use. Industry organizations and groups submitted and published their comments.

  • CCHIT published its comments and matrix document.
  • The Markle Foundation, Center for American Progress, and the Engleberg Center collaborate and summitted joint comments.
  • The American Hospital Association (AHA) summitted and published their letter to the ONC.
  • College of Health Information Management Executives summitted and published their letter to the ONC.
  • The American Medical Association (AMA) submitted a letter and comments for consideration.
  • Healthcare Information Mangement Systems Society (HIMSS) submitted comments approved by their board of directors.
  • eHealth Initiative submitted comments from their steering committee.

June 16, 2009
HIT Policy Committee’s workgroup present draft presentation on its policy framework and definition of “meaningful use”. Goals and objectives by year were presented in this matrix.

May 11, 2009
HIT Policy Committee’s first meeting identifies the Meaningful Use Workgroup and charges them with developing recommendations to the Committee for meaningful use in phases for years 2011, 2013, and 2015.