When the federal government signed into law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act as part of ARRA, which was, in part, designed to create incentives for the use of health information technology, it based many of the incentives on “Meaningful Use.”
The requirements are intended to progress through three different stages over several years.
Stage 1, Meaningful Use: Sets a baseline for electronic data capture and medical information sharing. Requires the use of an electronic health record (EHR) as well as a demonstration that it is used to meet objective and measurable requirements. There are 15 required core objectives and a menu of other objectives, several of which must be met in order to meet the thresholds of quality measurements in order to receive the financial incentives referenced in the regulations promulgated by the HITECH Act. For the most part these were implemented in 2011 through 2013.
Stage 2, Meaningful Use: Stage 2 focuses on “increasing the electronic capture of health information in a structured format, as well as increasing the exchange of clinically relevant information between providers of care at care transitions.”
Stage 2 set forth three broad requirements. First was the standardization of data formats, which is intended to simplify how healthcare information is captured and shared across disparate IT systems, i.e., improved interoperability.
Second, it required that patients are able to easily access and download their digital medical records and images for their own use.
Third, it expanded the scope of quality metrics tracking to include specialists and to reflect outcomes, as well as care coordination.
As part of Stage 2, healthcare entities must satisfy a lengthy list of measure criteria.
Stage 3, Meaningful Use: Stage 3 requirements were released in 2015. These criteria focus on the sustainability of the program through improvements in quality, safety and efficiency that improve health outcomes, and include:
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 4 – March 18, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Hospital and health system lab managers say some vendors of electronic health record systems for independent physicians are aggressively raising the fees they charge labs. Labs serving outreach physicians now pay more in two ways, they say. First, they pay the price the vendor charges to implement an LIS-to-EHR interface. Second, they pay
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 11 – July 30, 2018 issue
Clinical labs and physicians can soon say goodbye to “meaningful use.” Federal officials are proposing a significant change to the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive program for certified EHRs that has been in existence since 2011. In a press release issued last spring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIII No. 11 – August 15, 2016 issue
CEO SUMMARY: For 10 years, three primary trends have reshaped the anatomic pathology profession. They are declining reimbursement, competition from physicians establishing in-office pathology labs, and a host of new government laws and regulations. More changes are coming, predicts one business expert in pathology. Those changes involve new Medicare payment models, along with opportunities for
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXII, NO. 18 - December 28, 2015 issue
AT THE END OF EACH YEAR, IT IS GENERALLY EASY TO PICK OUT the stories of greatest significance for the lab industry during the previous 12 months. But what is often overlooked are the non-stories. These are the events that did not happen in the year, despite earlier occurrences and the momentum pushing certain trends
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXII NO. 5 - March 30, 2015 issue
Last Friday, at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, members of the health systems’s authority board were given tours of the new $63.4 million clinical laboratory facility. It is scheduled to open on May 4 and will feature the latest state-of-the art analyzers and lab automation systems. Located in a new building of 162,378 square feet, it will be home to more than 350 lab employees.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXII NO. 2 - January 26, 2015 issue
CEO SUMMARY: EHR system vendors must now comply with the federal government’s Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements. Well-established EHR vendors will survive. But smaller EHR companies may struggle to provide the enhancements to their first generation EHR products that are required to certify as MU Stage 2 compliant. These developments mean many physicians may need to find new EHR vendors. In turn, that will require clinical labs to build new interfaces to these physicians’ EHRs.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXII NO. 2 - January 26, 2015 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Yet another specialty society is opposing the laboratory benefit management program UnitedHealthcare introduced in Florida last fall. Rheumatologists have joined four other specialty physicians in saying UHC’s BeaconLBS system could be detrimental to patient care. In a letter to UHC, the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations said it, “will pursue the reversal of this policy with our state and national societies through every regulatory, legislative, and public means possible.”
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXI NO. 3 - February 24, 2014 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Are clinical labs and pathology groups ready for the end of fee-for-service reimbursement? That’s just one important question that will be answered at the upcoming Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management that will take place in New Orleans on April 29-30. The American healthcare system is undergoing unprecedented transformation and sessions
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XX No. 17 - December 23, 2013 issue
CEO SUMMARY: On December 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed to delay implementation of Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 until 2016. One reason is that only about 80 vendors have certified their products to MU Stage 2. That is a small proportion of the almost 900 vendors who hold MU Stage 1
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XX No. 15 - November 11, 2013 issue
CEO SUMMARY: One trend getting little publicity is that of health information exchanges (HIEs). Since its founding in 2009, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) has grown steadily. Today, most of the state’s independent lab companies and hospital laboratories are connected to CORHIO. Real-time access to laboratory test data is one feature that has
