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Last February, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The new law includes Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) will set policies and create standards and specifications for EHR technology and oversee the adoption of EMR.
At the end of December, the Department of Health and Human Services released two rules guiding the implementation and adoption of a national network of health information technology (HIT). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposed definition of “meaningful use” for adopting EHR. Meeting the meaningful use standards is necessary to qualify up to $44,000 in incentive payments over four years beginning in 2011. The National Coordinator of the HHS Office released an interim final rule defining the initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria.
To qualify for the full, first-year incentive, a physician must demonstrate “meaningful use” of an EHR for at least 90 continuous days starting in 2011.
The Academy of Ophthalmology tells us that it is not clear how ophthalmology will qualify for the incentive program in the first stage.The Academy reports that CMS has done little to simplify and streamline the requirements as the Academy had requested. CMS anticipates that the proposed rules for the program’s three stages will be updated over the next three years to reflect technological advances. The next few months of rulemaking could include updates to criteria established in the first stage.The Academy will continue its fight to ensure that ophthalmology can qualify for the incentives.
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