HHS Announces Final Rules to Support Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records

REACH Designated to Assist Minnesota and North Dakota Health Care Providers on Making Electronic Health Records a Realiy

BLOOMINGTON, MN (July 14, 2010) – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced final rules to help improve Americans’ health, increase safety and reduce health care costs through expanded use of electronic health records (EHR).

The Regional Extension Assistance Center for HIT (REACH) is one of 60 Regional Extension Centers around the country, designed to offer health care providers a local resource for technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care provider efforts to become meaningful users of EHR.  REACH is designated to serve Minnesota and North Dakota providers.

“For years, health policy leaders on both sides of the aisle have urged adoption of electronic health records throughout our health care system to improve quality of care and ultimately lower costs,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Today, with the leadership of the President and the Congress, we are making that goal a reality.”

Established under the HITECH Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified EHR technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. One of the two regulations announced today defines the “meaningful use” objectives that providers must meet to qualify for the bonus payments, and the other regulation identifies the technical capabilities required for certified EHR technology.

With “meaningful use” definitions in place, REACH will be working with primary care providers and their practices to ensure that the EHR system they acquire will support achievement of “meaningful use” objectives. With today’s announcement, a concentrated five-year national initiative to adopt and use electronic records in health care can begin.

“Our Regional Extension Center provides the needed expert field support for all health care providers to advance the rapid adoption and effective use of health IT,” said Sue Severson, REACH program director. “We understand the unique challenges facing today’s health care provider. As a companion program to the incentives, we fill the role of trusted advisor and technical assistance expert for providers in Minnesota and North Dakota, bringing them national insight and local expertise.”

Two companion final rules were announced today. One regulation, issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), defines the minimum requirements that providers must meet through their use of certified EHR technology in order to qualify for the payments. The other rule, issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), identifies the standards and certification criteria for the certification of EHR technology, so eligible professionals and hospitals may be assured that the systems they adopt are capable of performing the required functions.

The CMS rule announced today makes final a proposed rule issued on Jan, 13, 2010. The final rule includes modifications that address stakeholder concerns while retaining the intent and structure of the incentive programs. In particular, while the proposed rule called on eligible professionals to meet 25 requirements (23 for hospitals) in their use of EHRs, the final rules divides the requirements into a “core” group of requirements that must be met, plus an additional “menu” of procedures from which providers may choose. This “two track” approach ensures that the most basic elements of meaningful EHR use will be met by all providers qualifying for incentive payments, while at the same time allowing latitude in other areas to reflect providers’ needs and their individual path to full EHR use.

“Health care is finally making the technology advances that other sectors of our economy began to undertake years ago,” Dr. Blumenthal said. “These changes will be challenging for clinicians and hospitals, but the time has come to act. Adoption and meaningful use of EHRs will help providers deliver better and more effective care, and the benefits for patients and providers alike will grow rapidly over time.”

About REACH

REACH is a nonprofit federal HIT Regional Extension Center dedicated to helping providers in clinics, Critical Access and small rural hospitals under 50 beds, and other priority settings in Minnesota and North Dakota implement and effectively use electronic health records. Our mission is to assure that each of our clients achieve meaningful use.

REACH is a program of Key Health Alliance, a partnership of Stratis Health, National Rural Health Resource Center, and The College of St. Scholastica, which collaborates with North Dakota Health Care Review and the University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Center for Rural Health.

For more information on REACH, www.khaREACH.org.

For additional information about the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers, see http://HealthIT.hhs.gov/programs/REC/.

Additional Resources

CMS/ONC fact sheet on the rules, http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/  

Technical fact sheet on ONC’s standards and certification criteria final rule, http://healthit.hhs.gov/standardsandcertification

Meaningful Use Final Rule [PDF - 13.94 MB]

REACH is a project federally funded through the Office of the National Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services (grant number EP-HIT-09-003).