This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Stage 2 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released
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.
On Feb. 23, both the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator released their Notices of Proposed Rulemaking for Stage 2 of the EHR Incentive Program.
CMS’s rule relates to the meaningful use requirements for eligible professionals and hospitals, while the Office of the National Coordinator’s rule relates to the software vendors' certification requirements (once a Final Rule is released, all vendors will have to be certified on the new and modified measures).
Here's a summary of the Stage 2 proposals:
- There’s a proposal to delay Stage 2 until 2014.
- Nearly all of the Stage 1 core and menu objectives have been retained.
- 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- The “provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information” objective was eliminated because it has been replaced by an “electronic/online access” core objective.
- Multiple Stage 1 objectives have been combined into more unified Stage 2 objectives, with a subsequent rise in the measure threshold.
Remember, all of this is "proposed" at this time and the Final Rules won't be released until after the 60-day comment period – probably some time in June.