Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012
This Week's News
Stage 2 meaningful use requirements revealed; AMA reviewing final rule
A final rule issued Aug. 23 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) spells out the meaningful use requirements physicians must meet in the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) program to avoid a monetary penalty in 2015.
Stage 2, which will begin as early as 2014, focuses on increasing health information exchange between physicians and patients, building upon the basic EHR functionalities already required in Stage 1 of the program. While more physicians are adopting EHR systems, the number of physicians who have received incentive payments under Stage 1 of the program remains low.
"The AMA has provided ongoing input since the inception of the EHR incentive program and has urged greater flexibility to make the program more reasonable and achievable for physicians," AMA Board of Trustees Chair Steven J. Stack, MD, said in a statement.
Before the rule was finalized, the AMA and 98 other medical associations submitted a comment letter to CMS, requesting greater flexibility in the Stage 2 requirements so more physicians could participate.
"We will carefully review the final rule and hope to see the changes we advocated for to promote widespread adoption and meaningful use of EHRs by physicians," Dr. Stack said.
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