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Meaningful Use stage 2 to be delayed
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by Jeff Grant
This article was published as part of a blog series on electronic health records and the optometric practice.
It appears that the proposal to delay stage 2 of meaningful use by 1 year for those who successfully attest in 2011 will be expanded and made available to those who first attest in 2012.
Back in June, Farzad Mostashari, MD, national coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, announced his support for delaying stage 2 of electronic health records meaningful use (MU) by 1 year as detailed in the proposed rule.
On Nov. 30, 2011, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a report that includes the commitment to expand the stage 1 extension beyond only those who first attest in 2011. The proposal is intended to encourage faster adoption. The Secretary announced that HHS intends to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health Internet technology this year and next year, without meeting the new standards until 2014.
This provides much more flexibility for those who first attest in 2012 and allows them to meet stage 1 requirements in 2012 and 2013.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will probably be released in February 2012 and will be followed by a comment period. That means that the Final Rule on stage 2 will probably not be available until June 2012. Instead of forcing software vendors to scramble to update their software after the Final Rule and before the start of 2013 (as the original Final Rule on MU stipulated), vendors will now have more time to develop the additional requirements and gain certification on the enhancements.