The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:
- The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing.
- The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care.
- The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.
Simply put, "meaningful use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.
To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:
- Medicare EHR Incentive Program - Eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology every year they participate in the program.
- Medicaid EHR Incentive Program - Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals may qualify for incentive payments if they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use in their first year of participation. They must successfully demonstrate meaningful use for subsequent participation years.
- Adopted: Acquired and installed certified EHR technology. (For example, can show evidence of installation.)
- Implemented: Began using certified EHR technology. (For example, provide staff training or data entry of patient demographic information into EHR.)
- Upgraded: Expanded existing technology to meet certification requirements. (For example, upgrade to certified EHR technology or add new functionality to meet the definition of certified EHR technology.
Meaningful Use
Meaningful Use establishes a set of requirements that Eligible Professionals (EP) or Eligible Hospitals (EH) will need to meet in order to receive incentive funds. The requirements consist of both a core set and a menu set of objectives. The number of objectives for Meaningful Use in each set will vary depending on the organization’s eligibility status. For a complete list of the core and menu objectives and additional information regarding Meaningful Use Requirements, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/ehrincentiveprograms/30_Meaningful_Use.asp
Although providers are given the choice on which menu set options to achieve, one of the five must be specific to public health. The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) will assist EPs and EHs with the public health objectives which include submitting electronic data to the health department on immunizations, syndromic surveillance, and reportable lab results.
ADH will provide each facility after testing with a validation letter for the public health measure only. The letter will not be a “certification” that the Eligible Professional (EP) or Eligible Hospital (EH) has meet Meaningful Use.
Click on the appropriate link to learn more about testing the following public health options:
The Privacy Rule permits covered entities to disclose PHI, without authorization, to public health authorities or other entities who are legally authorized to receive such reports for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.
Need more information or help regarding Meaningful Use?
HITArkansas, a division of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, is the federally designated Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (HITREC) for the state of Arkansas. HITArkansas’ purpose is to help health care providers in their use of health information technology by offering guidance, technical assistance and education of financial incentives associated with transitioning to the use of electronic health records (EHRs).
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Please continue to check this site for current ADH Meaningful Use testing requirements and instructions as the process will be evolving as ADH acquires new technology.