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CMS EHR Incentive Certified Technology Meaningful UseWhat is "Meaningful Use"?
Simply put, "meaningful use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:
1. The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing.
2. The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care.
3. The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.
What are the requirements for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (2011 and 2012)?
Meaningful use includes both a core set and a menu set of objectives that are specific to eligible professionals or eligible hospitals and CAHs.
For eligible professionals, there are a total of 25 meaningful use objectives. To qualify for an incentive payment, 20 of these 25 objectives must be met.
There are 15 required core objectives.
The remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives.
For eligible hospitals and CAHs, there are a total of 24 meaningful use objectives. To qualify for an incentive payment, 19 of these 24 objectives must be met.
There are 14 required core objectives.
The remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives
What are "Clinical Quality Measures"?
To demonstrate meaningful use successfully, eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and CAHs are required also to report clinical quality measures specific to eligible professionals or eligible hospitals and CAHs.
Eligible professionals must report on 6 total clinical quality measures: 3 required core measures (substituting alternate core measures where necessary) and 3 additional measures (selected from a set of 38 clinical quality measures).
Eligible hospitals and CAHs must report on all 15 of their clinical quality measures.
