On Monday, CMS sent to the Office of Management and Budget the final rule outlining requirements for hospitals and health care providers seeking to attest to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program, GovInfoSecurityreports (Kolbasuk McGee, GovInfoSecurity, 7/17).
OMB review is one of the last steps before a rule is published (Goedert, Health Data Management, 7/17).
Background
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
In February, CMS released a proposed rule outlining requirements for hospitals and health care providers seeking to attest to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT also released a proposed rule outlining standards and criteria for the certification of EHR systems under Stage 2 of the meaningful use program (iHealthBeat, 5/9).
Details on the Release
The final rule on EHR certification criteria was not included in the list of regulations under review by OMB.
Federal officials previously said that the final versions of both Stage 2 rules would be released by the end of summer. OMB typically takes between several weeks and many months to review rules (GovInfoSecurity, 7/17).
