After working for more than a year to develop its Meaningful Use and Certification rules, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) are focused on ensuring healthcare providers know how to enroll in the soon-to-be-launched incentive program. In a “free training” session held […]
CMS on Meaningful Use: 1 Stage Down, 2 to Go
Much of what will become Meaningful Use Stage 2 can be found in the recently released Stage 1, according to comments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Tony Trenkle, who spoke during this month’s HIT Policy Committee meeting. Meaningful Use Stage 2, he said, will expand on Stage 1 by making the current “menu” set part of future core requirements. Trenkle, director of the CMS Office of e-Health Standards and Services, said the organization also wanted to get certain administrative requirements — which were included in the NPRM but dropped from the final regulation— along higher CPOE levels, into Stage 2.
TEXT/PODCAST: One-on-One w/Former ONC Senior Adviser John Glaser, Part I
Over the past year, John Glaser, Ph.D., has been eating and breathing Meaningful Use and Certification even more than his HITECH-focused CIO colleagues. That’s because while Glaser has kept up his role as VP & CIO at Partners HealthCare on a part-time basis, he’s also been winging down to D.C. every week to fulfill his […]
HIT Certification Workgroup Debates Engaging FDA
The merits of working with the FDA to help ONC craft an EMR certification program that addresses both pre- and post-market HIT patient safety issues were discussed at the HIT Policy Committee Workgroup on Certification and Adoption meeting held this week. On one side of the debate, HIT Software Entrepreneur and Workgroup Co-Chair Paul Egerman argued that the FDA could bring some significant value to the table in crafting a program.
IFR on E-Prescribing of Controlled Substance Published
A new Interim Final Rule from the DEA’s Department of Justice on Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances specifies the guidelines healthcare providers will need to follow in order to electronically prescribe controlled substances. Since the DEA published the NPRM; ONC, CMS, AHRQ and other HHS staff “have worked closely with DEA to develop the policies […]