This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Stage 2 final rule affects stage 1
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
by Jeff Grant
This article was published as part of a blog series on electronic health records and the optometric practice.
All eligible professionals are allowed to use stage 1 meaningful use requirements for at least two payment years. So, while stage 2 rules go into effect in 2014 for those eligible professionals in at least their third year of meaningful use, others still get to use stage 1 requirements. This means that if your first payment year is going to be 2013, you'll use stage 1 in 2013 and in 2014.
Many of the stage 1 core and menu objectives are retained for stage 2, and new measures were added; the final rule for stage 2 does make some changes that affect those in stage 1. Some of these changes would be optional for use by providers in stage 1 but would be required for use in stage 2. Other changes would not take effect until providers have met the stage 2 criteria.
Changes to stage 1 include:
- The "exchange of key clinical information" core objective from stage 1 was eliminated in favor of a more robust "transitions of care" core objective in stage 2.
- The "provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information" objective was eliminated because it has been replaced by an "electronic/online access" core objective.
- Changes were made to the denominator of computerized provider order entry.
- Changes were made to the age limitations for vital signs.
There are also multiple stage 1 objectives that have been combined into more unified stage 2 objectives. According to the CMS fact sheet, this eliminates an unnecessary accounting and reporting burden for providers by recognizing that recording data in a structured form has become a normal part of care delivery.
In addition, there are new objectives that have greater applicability to many specialty providers:
- Imaging results and information must be accessible through certified electronic health records (EHR) technology.
- There should exist the capability to identify and report cancer cases to a state cancer registry, except where prohibited, and in accordance with applicable law and practice.
- There should exist the capability to identify and report specific cases to a specialized registry (other than a cancer registry), except where prohibited, and in accordance with applicable law and practice.
As always, study the measures carefully and talk to your EHR vendor about how exactly you are to meet the requirements of each measure in their software.