Meaningful use 2 is using certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to: Improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities. Engage patients and family. Improve care coordination, and population and public health. Maintain privacy and security of patient health information.

It’s not enough just to own a certified EHR Providers have to demonstrate to CMS that they are using their EHRs in ways that can positively impact the care of their patients

To do this, providers must meet all of the objectives established by CMS for these programs Then they will be able to demonstrate MEANINGFUL USE of their EHRs and receive an incentive payment.

CMS recently published a final rule that specifies the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

What does Stage 2 Mean ?

  • New Criteria – Starting in 2014, providers participating in the EHR Incentive Programs who have met Stage 1 for two or three years will need to meet meaningful use Stage 2 criteria
  • Improving Patient Care – Stage 2 includes new objectives to improve patient care through better clinical decision support, care coordination, and patient engagement
  • Saving Money, Time, Lives

Summary of Stage 2 Structure: Stage 2 retains the same basic structure as Stage 1 of meaningful use Providers must report on 20 objectives in Stage 2. The meaningful use measures are split into core and menu objectives Eligible professionals must report on all core objectives, but can choose the menu measures that pertain to their practice. Eligible professionals must now report on 17 core objectives and 3 out of a possible 6 menu objectives.

Even if you already have a certified EHR, you will have to adopt or upgrade to the new certification in order to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs beginning in 2014.

What Are Stage 2 Objectives of the EHR Incentive Programs?

Stage 2 is the second step of meaningful use for eligible professionals After you have demonstrated meaningful use under the Stage 1 requirements, you will have to demonstrate meaningful use under the Stage 2 requirements. For Stage 2 of meaningful use, eligible professionals must meet the thresholds for the 17 core and 3 menu objectives, and report on Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs).

What are the requirements?

17 Core Objectives – These are objectives that everyone who participates in Stage 2 must meet Some of the core objectives have exclusions, but many do not

3 of 6 Menu Objectives – You only have to report on 3 out of the 6 available menu objectives for Stage 2 You can choose objectives that make sense for your workflow or practice Again, some of these objectives have exclusions

What if none of the Menu Objectives are relevant?

It’s rare, but it’s possible that none of the menu objectives are applicable to your scope of practice If that is the case for you and you qualify for all of the exclusions for each of the menu objectives, then you can select 3 menu objectives and claim the exclusion for each. However, if you do not qualify for all of the exclusions to the menu objectives, you must go back and select menu objectives on which you can report.

The benefits of Meaningful Use Stage2 include:

Complete and perfect information: Guardians have admittance to the data they require readily available, to diagnose issues and give the best conceivable consideration

Improved coordination of care: Information can be shared in a split second crosswise over consideration groups, including doctor workplaces, doctor’s facilities and well-being systems, prompting better care coordination.

Patient engagement: With the capacity to get their medical data electronically and offer it safely over the Internet, patients can take a more dynamic part in their health awareness and that of their families.

Improved patient safety: Instant electronic access to data about solutions, hypersensitivities, conditions and treatment history can incredibly decrease the danger of medical mistakes.

Healthier patient populations and communities: Crucial information about illnesses and results caught at the purpose of consideration gets to be accessible to other health experts generally, regionally and across the nation.

Interoperability between vendors: With the EHR certificate companion rule, sellers may be more constrained to work together, or possibly correspond with one another to create more perfect EHR items and frameworks.

Challenges

Electronic data transfer among providers and vendors: A great benefit of electronic medical records and meaningful use is the exchange of health data that occurs within a hospital or health system and across departments and specialties. The Stage 2 proposed rule includes core and menu objectives encouraging eligible providers to increase electronic data transfer to meet specific thresholds. The requirements include a higher threshold for e-prescribing; incorporating structured laboratory results into EHRs; and the expectation that providers will electronically transmit patient care summaries to support transitions in care across unaffiliated providers, settings and EHR systems.

Sustaining health information exchanges: One of the biggest problems with health information exchanges is their financial sustainability. Unfortunately, the Stage 2 proposed rule does not address the issue.

Patient access to electronic health information: Another theme within the Stage 2 proposed rule is providing patients with greater access to their health information electronically. CMS is incentivizing providers to encourage patients to use technology to access health information. The proposed rule includes core objectives to use EHR technology to identify patient specific education resources; to provide patients the ability to view, download and transmit information about their hospital admissions and their health information online; and to secure electronic messaging to communicate with patients on health information.