What is "Meaningful Use"?
The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing. for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care and to submit clinical quality and other measures. Simply put, "meaningful use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and quantity.
Stage 2 Meaningful Use Finalized 8.23.12
Federal Register Final Rule Stage 2
Health and Human Services Press Release
HHS Fact Sheet on Stage 2
CMS Resources for Stage 2
Quality Measures for 2014 EHR Meaningful Use
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released clinical quality meaure electronic specifications that hospitals and eligible professionals will use to report for meaningful use beginning in 2014. Eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals will report using the new 2014 criteria for either Stage 1 or Stage 2 meaningful use. The value sets define clinical concepts, providing a list of numerical values, such as code values from ICD-9 and SNOWMED CT, and individual descriptions for the clinical concepts used to define the quality measures. Hospitals are encouraged to confirm that their EHR vendors support their selected clinical quality measures.
New ONC Revisions to EHR Certification Criteria 2014 Edition
Federal Register Final Rule 2014 Certification
ONC Fact Sheet
ONC Complete EHR Certification Criteria
ONC Stage 2 Summary Grid of MU Measures and 2014 EHR Criteria
Changes to Stage 1 Meaningful Use
CMS recently announced some changes to the Stage 1 meaningful use objectives, measures, and exclusions for eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs). Some of these changes will take effect as early as October 1, 2012, for eligible hospitals and CAHs, or January 1, 2013, for EPs. Other Stage 1 changes will not take effect until the 2014 fiscal or calendar year and will be optional in 2013. Stage 1 Changes Tipsheet summarizes the changes to the Stage 1 meaningful use objectives. The Stage 1 ONC Summary Grid shows how meaningful use Stage 1 objectives and measures correlated with 2014 Edition EHR certification criteria
Three Month Reporting Period All Stages in 2014
For 2014 only, all providers regardless of their stage of meaningful use are only required to demonstrate meaningful use for a three-month EHR reporting period. Medicare providers can either report their CQMs for the entire year or select an optional three-month reporting period for CQMs that is identical to their three-month reporting period for meaningful use.
For Medicare providers, this 3-month reporting period is fixed to the quarter of either the fiscal (for eligible hospitals and CAHs) or calendar (for EPs) year in order to align with existing CMS quality measurement programs, such as the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR). CMS is permitting this one-time three-month reporting period in 2014 only so that all providers who must upgrade to 2014 Certified EHR Technology will have adequate time to implement their new Certified EHR systems.
In subsequent years, the reporting period for clinical quality measures would be the entire calendar year (for EPs) or fiscal year (for eligible hospitals and CAHs).
Requirements for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (2011-2013)
Core and Menu Set Objectives
For eligible hospitals and CAHs, there are a total of 24 meaningful use objectives. To qualify for an incentive payment, 19 of these 24 objectives must be met. There are 14 required core objectives. The remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives.
For eligible professionals, there are a total of 25 meaningful use objectives. To qualify for an incentive payment, 20 of these 25 objectives must be met. There are 15 required core objectives. The remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives..
Clinical Quality Measures
To demonstrate meaningful use successfully, eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and CAHs are required also to report clinical quality measures specific to eligible professionals or eligible hospitals and CAHs.
Eligible hospitals and CAHs must report on all 15 of their clinical quality measures.
Eligible professionals must report on 6 total clinical quality measures: 3 required core measures (substituting alternate core measures where necessary) and 3 additional measures (selected from a set of 38 clinical quality measures).
ONC Reference Grid Stage 1 Meaningful Use Measures and ONC Certification Criteria for Hospitals
Required information for Hospitals
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CMS Identity and Access Management (I&A) User Id and Password
- CMS Certification Number (CCN)
- National Provider Identifier (NPI)
- Hospital Tax Identification Number
- Hospital Registration Guide
Required Information for Eligible Professionals
- National Provider Identifier (NPI)
- National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) User ID and Password if you are re-assigning your benefits
- Payee Tax Identification Number
- Payee National Provider Identifier (NPI)
- Eligible Professionals Registration Guide
Attestation for EHR Incentives Resources
* Attestation User Guide for Eligible Hospitals
* Attstation User Guide for Eligible Professionals
* Attestation Calculator
* CAH Incentive Payment Process WPS Medicare
outlines additional steps for receipt of EHR incentive payment after successful attestation.
CMS CAH Payment Tipsheet
If you have questions or need additional information regarding health information technology, please contact Melissa Hungerford, Mary Matzke or Sally Perkins at (785) 233-7436.