Unveiling the Mysteries of US Healthcare – Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2

All the Eligible Professionals (EPs), Eligible Hospitals (EHs) and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) that have demonstrated Stage 1 meaningful use successfully can participate in the Stage 2 of the EHR Incentive Program. Stage 2 of the EHR incentive program requires the participants to demonstrate enhanced meaningful use capabilities.

In May 2014, CMS released a final rule to grant flexibility to the providers who were finding it too challenging to implement 2014 EHR technology for attestation this year. The attestation for Meaningful Use Stage 2 is similar to that for Meaningful Use Stage 1 and can be done on the CMS website https://ehrincentives.cms.gov/hitech/login.action.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 uses a core and menu structure of objectives required to be met by EPs and EHs/CAHs.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements for EPs:

• 17 core objectives
• 3 menu objectives that they select from a total list of 6
• Total of 20 core objectives.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements for Eligible hospitals and CAHs:

• 16 core objectives
• 3 menu objectives that they select from a total list of 6
• Total of 19 core objectives

Core objectives for the Eligible Professionals (EPs):

1. Using computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders
2. Generating and transmitting permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)
3. Recording demographic information
4. Recording and chart changes in vital signs
5. Recording smoking status for patients 13 years old or older
6. Using clinical decision support to improve performance on high-priority health conditions
7. Providing patients the ability to view online, download and transmit their health information
8. Providing clinical summaries for patients for each office visit
9. Protecting electronic health information created or maintained by the Certified EHR Technology
10. Incorporating clinical lab-test results into Certified EHR Technology
11. Generating lists of patients by specific conditions to use for quality improvement, reduction of disparities, research, or outreach
12. Using clinically relevant information to identify patients who should receive reminders for preventive/follow-up care
13. Using certified EHR technology to identify patient-specific education resources
14. Performing medication reconciliation
15. Providing summary of care record for each transition of care or referral
16. Submitting electronic data to immunization registries
17. Using secure electronic messaging to communicate with patients on relevant health information

You can find a detailed list of objectives and CQMs for EPs and EHs/CAHs on the CMS website.

http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/index.html

Clinical quality measure (CQM) reporting is a core objective for EHs and CAHs in Meaningful Use Stage 2. Beginning in 2014, all providers will report on CQMs uniformly regardless of their stage of meaningful use. EPs are required to report on 9 out of 64 CQMs and EHs/CAHs are required to report on 16 out of 29 CQMs. This data can be reported to CMS using PQRS (Physician Quality Reporting System) using the standard format provided by them.

This is meaningful use stage 2 in a nutshell. For more mysteries of US healthcare that I have unveiled, stay tuned for my upcoming blogs.