“Since passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), health care providers have been anxious to learn what “meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology” means and how they can receive part of the estimated $27 billion in incentive payments made available under Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid. On December 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) provided an initial answer. CMS released a proposed rule (the “Incentive Program Rule”)1 regarding the criteria that eligible professionals (EP), including non-hospital-based physicians,2 and eligible hospitals (EHs) must meet to qualify for incentive payments, as well as calculation of those payments and penalties for failing to use EHRs. Concurrently, ONC put out an interim final rule (the “EHR Technology Rule”) adopting initial standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology.3 The proposed rule and interim final rule were subsequently published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2010, and both include sixty-day comment periods. Although the rules answer many questions, physicians, hospitals, and their counsel will likely need more guidance before widespread adoption of EHRs occurs.”
Article
Ober Kaler, Christi J. Braun and Christopher P. Dean, Lexology, 4 February 2010
