Stage 3 Meaningful Use Drafts Could Be Released by August

A work group of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT plans to  release draft recommendations for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program by  August, FierceEMR reports (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 7/8).

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.

During a July 3 meeting, members of the Health IT Policy Committee’s  meaningful use work group said that they hope to develop Stage 3 draft  recommendations by Aug. 1 so a request for comment can be released by November  and Stage 3 final recommendations can be published by May  2013 (Raths, Healthcare Informatics, 7/5).

Possible Draft Recommendations for Stage 3

The meaningful use work group’s subgroup on population health has recommended  that Stage 3 of the meaningful use program require EHR systems to have the  ability to:

• Receive and review patient immunization data from a public health registry;
• Receive clinical decision support on recommended immunizations based on  a patient’s history; and
• Electronically send reports on health care-associated infections and  vaccine-related adverse events to appropriate public health agencies  (FierceEMR, 7/8).

Other Stage 3 recommendations under consideration would require hospitals and  health care providers to use EHR systems to:

• Track individual health care goals;
• Facilitate reconciliation of medications, problem lists, goals and care  plans; and
• Enable input and viewing by all care team members, caregivers and  patients (Healthcare Informatics, 7/5).

Source: iHealthBeat

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