The U.S. government has finalized the rules to explain what is meant by meaningful use of Electronic Health Records that enable healthcare providers to claim incentive payments from the government. The programs fall under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or the “HITECH Act”. Under the act, eligible professionals and hospitals that adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology will be eligible for the payments under Medicare and Medicaid EHR.
The programs will begin in 2011. The overall aim of the programs is to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient healthcare, and is being established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
An initial rule for the program was published and over 2000 comments were received on it by CMS by the last date of March 15, 2010. On July 15, 2010, the final rule was released. A fact sheet on the final rule has been published at CMS website. The fact sheet provides the background and highlights the relevance of EHR. Basically, EHR makes a patient’s health information available when and where it is needed instead of being locked in one office or another.
