The goal of meaningful use is to improve health care in the United States.

The benefits:

·        Electronic health records allows providers have the information they need to provide the best possible care. Providers will know more about their patients and their health history before they walk into the examination room.

      Electronic health records will empower patients to take a more active role in their health and in the health of their families. Patients can receive electronic copies of their medical records and share their health information securely over the Internet with their families.

·         Electronic health records allow their healthcare providers the ability to diagnose health problems earlier and improve the health outcomes of their patients. Electronic health records also allow information to be shared more easily among doctors' offices, hospitals, and across health systems, leading to better coordination of care.

·                Stage 1 requires meeting both core and menu objectives. All of the core objectives are required. EPs and hospitals may choose which objectives to meet from the meaningful use menu set.

     Meaningful use criteria for eligible professionals

1.    15 core objectives

2.    5 out of 10 from menu set objectives

3.    6 total clinical quality measures

                                3 core or alternate core

                                3 out of 38 from additional set

     Meaningful use criteria for eligible hospitals/CAHs

1.    14 core objectives

2.    5 out of 10 from menu set objectives

3.    15 clinical quality measures

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What is Meaningful Use

Simply, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, hospitals and eligible health care professionals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified Electronic Health Records (EHR) technology and use it to achieve specified objectives referred to as "Meaningful Use"; simply, providers must meet the objectives to qualify for the incentive payments.

To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:

·         Medicare EHR Incentive Program – Hospitals and Eligible professionals (EP) is a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, dentist or dental surgeon, podiatrist, optometrist, or chiropractor.  EPs can register for the program starting in January 2011.  and hospitals must demonstrate successful meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology for every year they participate in the program.

·         Medicaid EHR Incentive Program – Hospitals and Eligible professionals (EP) are Physicians, dentists, certified nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants practicing in an Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or a Rural Health Clinic (RHC) led by a physician assistant can qualify for incentive payments for the adoption, implementation, upgrade or the demonstration of meaningful use in their first year of participation. They also need to successfully demonstrate meaningful use for the remaining years they participate in the program.

One thing to note: If the Eligible Professionals qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid they decide on just one, but they may switch between the two only once prior to 2015. Furthermore, an Eligible Professionals who selects Medicaid must only receive incentive payments from a single state in any payment year.

 Year One:

• January 1, 2011 – Reporting year begins for eligible professionals.

• October 1, 2011 – Last day for eligible professionals to begin their 90-day reporting period for calendar year 2011 for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program.

• December 31, 2011 – Reporting year ends for eligible professionals.

• February 29, 2012 – Last day for eligible professionals to register and attest to receive an Incentive Payment for calendar year (CY) 2011.

Second year: (one year reporting period)

• January 1, 2012 – Reporting period begins.

• December 31, 2012 – Reporting period ends.

• February 2013 for attestation in CY 2013.

MeaningfulUseTimeline:

www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/cclho/Documents/MeaningfulUseTimeline.pdf

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