Maryland Electronic Health Record Incentive Program
Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records
The requirements of meaningful use to qualify for incentive payments are defined in the final EHR incentive program rule. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs provide a financial reward for the meaningful use of certified EHRs to achieve health and efficiency goals. By implementing and meaningfully using an EHR system, providers will reap benefits beyond financial incentives - like reduction in errors, availability of records and data, and reminders and alerts.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology maintains an up-to-date list of all certified EHR software and modules. This list will grow as more EHR products are certified.
To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:
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Medicare EHR incentive program - Eligible professionals and hospitals must successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology every year they participate in the program.
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Medicaid EHR incentive program - Eligible professionals and hospitals may qualify for incentive payments for the adoption, implementation, upgrade or the demonstration of meaningful use in their first year of participation. To continue to receive incentives, eligible professionals with certified EHR technology must successfully demonstrate meaningful use to Medicaid and CMS. This process will be described in the near future.
Definition of Meaningful Use
The requirements of meaningful use to qualify for incentive payments are defined in the final EHR incentive program rules. The Recovery Act specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:
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The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner (e.g.: e-Prescribing, or the electronic transfer of a prescription from the provider to a pharmacy);
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The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care; and
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The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.
To realize improved health care quality, efficiency and patient safety, the criteria for meaningful use will be staged in three steps over the course of the next five years. Stage 1 will set the baseline for electronic data capture and information sharing. Stage 2 and State 3 will continue to expand on this baseline according to federal regulations.
In July 2010, CMS and ONC posted final rules for EHR Incentive Programs and definitions of Meaningful Use. These rules definitively outline what is required by providers to receive EHR incentive payments in 2011 and 2012. These can be found Here.
Public Health Objectives
To demonstrate Stage 1 of Meaningful Use, eligible
professionals and hospitals must meet a specified
number of “core” and “menu” set objectives defined
by CMS. Within the "menu" set objectives, eligible
professionals and hospitals must choose at least one
Public Health objective. The Public Health measure
requires that a single test be performed, and
if successful, that transmission should continue if
Public Health is ready to continue receipt. It is
not necessary for the test to succeed in order to
meet the Stage 1 Meaningful Use Public Health
measure.
As of June 14, 2011, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) can accept electronic transmissions for all three Public Health objectives, Immunization, Syndromic Surveillance and Electronic Laboratory Results. A Department memorandum explaining the public health reporting requirements is available here.
Details on the submission process for each Public
Health measure are available by clicking the links
below.
