Meaningful Use

Meaningful use is a qualification to receive federal funding for health information technology, specifically, the use of electronic health records. According to the provisions of the Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), healthcare organizations that have achieved meaningful use by 2011 will be eligible for incentive payments, and those who have failed to achieve that standard by 2015 may be penalized.

 
What I heard at the Government Health IT Conference
June 18, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Amid a fifth IT revolution and the rise of mobile health, the federal government is working to reform the U.S. healthcare market while digitizing medicine, doing so slowly but steadily.
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3 patient engagement lessons
June 12, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Finding the right technology for patient segments, "beer and pretzel" communication and explanation of consent forms from trusted clinicians are three engagement strategies that worked for some Beacon Communities.
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Fridsma: Create standards with eye on future
June 11, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
The ONC's director of the Office of Science and Technology told the Government Health IT Conference to consider how technical standards can help solve future healthcare challenges, such as boosting EHR use in clinical research.
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Mostashari: Slow but steady interoperability progress
June 11, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Farzad Mostashari told the Government Health IT Conference that the balance of regulatory and market-based solutions to health IT standards and process improvement is a work in progress, but making inroads.
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HIMSS, NASCIO study finds HIE filling regional needs
June 7, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
A survey of 26 state CIOs being presented at the Government Health IT Conference shows how, post-HITECH, HIEs are being tailored to the needs of states and local communities and markets.
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Federal health officials call for new quality measurement framework
June 6, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
CMS, ONC and AHRQ leaders say the time is ripe for a new quality measurement program that gives providers, patients and payers meaningful data they can use, while reducing reporting burdens.
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Meaningful use incentives ascend past $14.5B
June 6, 2013 |
Diana Manos
CMS's most recent numbers show 395,000 eligible providers and hospitals in the program, with more and more coming in every month.
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Blumenthal: Most important change from MU is psychological
June 5, 2013 |
Diana Manos
Not surprised by findings in a study from the Annals of Internal Medicine, the former national coordinator wrote that meaningful use is still a work in progress.
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Survey finds docs struggling to meet MU
June 4, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
An Annals of Internal Medicine study found only about 10 percent of physicians meeting meaningful use standards in early 2012, leading the journal to call for more regulatory focus on standards to improve EHR usability.
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Q&A: A consumer view on why meaningful use should be strengthened, not delayed
May 31, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
Mark Savage, HIT policy and program director at the National Partnership for Women and Families, on the progress and lesser-discussed advantages of meaningful use, the promise of population health management, and the culture shift currently underway.
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Experts caution about Stage 2 meaningful use penalties
May 30, 2013 |
Diana Manos
Meaningful use specialists from Impact Advisors said that the tricky gotchas might be transition of case, patient engagement and public reporting.
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Commentary: Vermont invests in HIE
May 24, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Even if the nonprofit that manages Vermont's HIE retires in 2015 when its state funding sunsets, the investment will have provided a fairly successful return in bringing the state's delivery system into the digital age.
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Enabling Data as a Service in Healthcare
April 24, 2013 | On Demand Webinars
Join this webinar to learn how Delphix can accelerate IT projects in healthcare while improving application quality and reducing infrastructure costs.
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Are You Truly ACA Compliant? Incorporating the Correct Public Records Data Into Your Workflow
April 12, 2013 | On Demand Webinars
In this one hour webinar, Thomson Reuters and Verisys will outline several key areas of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and screening requirements. An overview of available public records data as well as strengths and weaknesses of various datasets will be discussed. We invite an open discussion to elaborate on the efficiencies that can be seen when the correct data is applied to the compliance workflow.
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Transforming Health Care Information Management with Data Capture Technologies
April 3, 2013 | On Demand Webinars
Designed for IT professionals, developers, and integrators creating and customizing healthcare systems and software, ABBYY experts will demonstrate how the newest data capture technologies can streamline information management in healthcare systems. We will demonstrate real world examples of how the latest technologies are used by current solution providers, and show how ABBYY technologies can be used to extract locked information from medical documentation. A pre-sales engineer will be available during this webinar to answer any questions regarding integrating these capabilities.
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Health Information Exchange Toolkit
January 30, 2013 | White Papers
This Experian QAS whitepaper discusses the challenges around the Health Information Exchange and details three simple steps agencies can take in order to streamiline the migration and enable a seamless implementation.
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Unified Approach for Sharing All Images and Records to Streamline Continuity of Care and Achieve Meaningful Use
January 22, 2013 | On Demand Webinars
Image and record sharing is often cumbersome and expensive and still does not reach all caregivers – despite large investments in EMR, PACS, VNA and HIE. Furthermore, communication back to referring physicians to update them on their patients’ status is manual if completed at all. The healthcare continuum is still disconnected.
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Accelerate Healthcare Reform with Information Technology
January 17, 2013 | White Papers
The current agenda is clear: wherever possible, reduce costs and improve quality-of-care services. These directives are in perfect alignment with the role of virtual and cloud computing infrastructure technologies, which help to lower costs and increase clinician productivity while future-proofing IT investments. As healthcare reform deadlines rapidly approach, choosing the right information technology (IT) platform will be critical to the success or failure of new services and exchanges. It will determine the ease or di!culty of updating existing applications and managing new ones. It will also serve as a foundation to help ensure that all healthcare services are secure, accessible and easy enough for citizens to access and use.
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Your Cloud in Healthcare - How to Use the Cloud to Achieve Greater Business Agility
January 17, 2013 | White Papers
The healthcare sector is adopting enterprise hybrid cloud across the provider, payer, and life sciences segments with the goal of improving the quality of care, reducing costs, and increasing responsiveness to risk. This industry brief goes over some results of the CIO Global Cloud Computing Adoption Study, a recent survey by IDG Research, and outlines the common hybrid cloud use cases for healthcare organizations. It also details a real-world example of how cloud computing is being used to achieve greater business agility.
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Palomar Health Choses EXTENSION's Alert Management Software Solution
January 2, 2013 | White Papers
Watch this informative video to learn why Palomar Health - the largest health district in the state of California - chose EXTENSION's healthcare alert management software to connect its nurse call system with the existing EHR and Cisco phones and the impact it has made on care team communication and patient experiences.
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Beyond the EHR: Seamlessly Connecting Nurses and Physicians Using an EHR-Extender (EHR-e)
January 2, 2013 | White Papers
This white paper focuses on how an EHR-Extender (EHR-e) can help hospitals leverage data trapped in the EHR and other clinical systems to establish better care team communication. The result of contextual critical alerts and texts are improved communication and enhanced workflows which makes patients, healthcare staff, administration, and regulators happy.
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New World Order: Effectively Securing Healthcare Data Through Secure Information Exchanges
December 12, 2012 | White Papers
Healthcare is dominated by the need for the sharing of detailed patient information as a result of today's information age. But it's also the focal point of the debate of how information is shared versus protecting the need for privacy, security and confidentiality. Data protection is paramount in today’s virtual environment and implementing a Secure Information Exchange (SIE) now will help organizations save both themselves and their patients down the road.
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Sizing Up Your Cloud Options - Is Now the Time?
November 7, 2012 | White Papers
A recent survey of IT executives found nearly 90% see business value in transitioning to Cloud computing, but only 20% have a plan to get there. Healthcare Cloud solutions require Compliance, Security, Privacy, Redundancy, and Scalability, so choosing the right path from on-premises servers to the Cloud can be daunting. Learn how to chart a quick and affordable course to healthcare Cloud Computing and how to choose the right Cloud services partner.
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Case Study: Blood Systems Expands Remote Access Connectivity to Prepare for Disaster
September 9, 2012 | White Papers
For more than 60 years, Blood Systems has been offering its life-giving services throughout the Western U.S. Blood Systems wanted to optimize its network for business value, migrating to the latest WAN services. Read this white paper to learn how Blood Systems increased flexibility and now support business continuity requirements so the nation’s blood supply wouldn’t be interrupted in the face of a natural disaster or pandemic.
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Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
June 7, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
This Week in Government Health IT ... A look ahead to next week's conference, MU payments continue surge, athenahealth's bold ICD-10 promise, and 3 pillars of population health.
Why vendors should participate in HIT rule making
June 5, 2013 |
Kat McDavitt
ONC has made it easy for stakeholders of all stripes to keep up on the process, rather than being completely blindsided by new regulations.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
May 30, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
This Week in Government Health IT ... DoD's VLER and HIE challenges ahead, how iEHR is like eating an elephant, and feds on the hunt for public feedback.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
May 24, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
This Week in Government Health IT: EHRs under fire once again, data breaches, and Mostashari spotlights the Beacon Communities.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
May 17, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
EHR, OMB, Cloud-First and FDCCI all under the gun ... This week in Government Health IT.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
May 10, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
Super Docs, security challenges, EHRs under the gun, and the continuing upward trajectory of meaningful use payments.
CMS updates FAQ with answer on MU after switching EHR vendors
April 26, 2013 |
Frank Irving
Another new answer pertains to the impact of budget cuts brought on by sequestration.
Looking ahead to ONC committee work
April 17, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
In the coming months, the ONC Standards Committee is going to hear updates from workgroups on a variety of software and policy standards for issues like structured data, genomics representation and modular application integration.
Lies, damn lies and politics
April 17, 2013 |
Keith W. Boone
Despite agreeing with many statements in the report, Health Standards blogger Keith Boone sets the record straight about 6 GOP Senators calling for a 'reboot' of the meaningful use incentives program.
The road ahead for health IT ... and for EHRWatch
April 16, 2013 |
Jeff Rowe
Winding down the community site, Editor Jeff Rowe delves into an IDC report to suggest that health IT professionals incorporate other big tasks into their EHR plans.
Quick take: 3 changes CMS and OIG proposed to EHR safe harbor
April 9, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
Aiming to modify safe harbor within the anti-kickback statute, the agencies suggest changes for the sake of continuing to facilitate EHR adoption.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
April 5, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
HIE interoperability and security deals, CommonWell in the spotlight, and how a disaster doc is preparing for the next issue.