Meaningful Use may have been the top continuing news story of the year

With millions of dollars available for physician practices, the year 2010 started with the unveiling of the proposed rules for Meaningful Use last January.  February offered time for provides to understand the proposed rules and provide feedback to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In March, the healthcare reform bill, which includes benchmarks that emphasize quality care, was signed into law. Electronic health record that can be accessed by all providers within a system can coordinate patient care more effectively.

During April and May, the many regional extension centers around the country were providing physicians with critical customized advice to assist with the purchase and implementation of health information systems.

Seventeen Beacon awards were announced in June – they will serve as models for the broad use of healthcare information technology and help lead the way to lower cost healthcare through the use of electronic health records.

In July, offices around the country reviewed the final rule on meaningful use of health IT and Dr. Donald Berwick was sworn in as head of CMS. And in August, the nation’s health IT chief, Dr David Blumenthal, endorsed quality of care data collection as established under the HITECH act and was quoted as saying collecting data on care brings out the best in physicians.

In September, we learned the names of three entities authorized to certify electronic health record systems, and EHR vendors began the process of proving their systems met the meaningful use criteria.

By October, some larger healthcare practices were expressing concern that there would not be enough experienced IT personnel to help with all the necessary information technology changes. Speaking at a conference in Washington D.C., Dr Berwick shared his belief that all physicians involved in a patients’ episode of care need access to a single set of electronic health records.

In November, Kaiser Permanente put collaboration ahead of competition and announced it would share technology developed to achieve key meaningful use standards with other healthcare professionals.

CMS continued to plan for better care, better population health and reduction of per capita healthcare costs & placed many updates on their EHR incentive program website during the month of December.

Meaningful use will continue to be a top news story in 2011!  Registration for the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs begins January 3, 2011; however, not all states will begin Medicaid incentives immediately.   CMS will continue to update their website as additional information about the program is developed. 

For more information, go to: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/20_RegistrationandAttestation.asp#TopOfPage