This week, the Health IT Policy Committee approved recommendations from its ‘meaningful use” work group calling for the relaxation of the standards that health care providers must meet to demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR). (Demonstration of the standards is required to receive federal reimbursement for implementing EHR systems).
The initial federal proposals called for health care providers to perform 25 different measures to demonstrate meaningful use, including care coordination; patient engagement; privacy and security; public health; and quality and safety. Within each priority category are additional measures, and the previous policy was “all or nothing”. The new approved recommendations allow for health care providers to defer up to five measures from 2011 to 2013.
The adoption of these recommendations will allow health care providers to continue making progress on their EHR implementations while complying with most of the meaningful use standards – a definite step in the right direction as we continue to make progress on the national EHR initiative.
Larry Gray, Director Health IT, SysTest Labs.
