On Tuesday, July 13, AOA Board of Trustees member Ronald Burns, DO participated in a briefing and press event with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal, MD, MPP to announce the final rules on 'meaningful use' of health information technology.
During the event on the final rule Dr. Blumenthal and Tony Trenkle of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services summarized the revisions that were made to the rule in an effort to address the numerous concerns of the healthcare community. CMS received more than 2000 comments on the proposed rule.
For example, the final rule eliminates the "all or nothing criteria" in which eligible professionals were expected to meet 25 objectives. The AOA, along with several physician associations, urged CMS in comments to scale back the criteria because the all or nothing approach would be too difficult to achieve particularly for small practices. For Stage 1, the final rule divides the objectives into a "core" group of 15 required objectives and a "menu set" of 10 procedures from which physicians can choose five.
This event marks the last stage in laying the groundwork for the nation's transition to electronic health records that began in February of 2009, when Congress passed the "America's Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (ARRA) which dedicated financial support for physicians who implement an electronic health records system in their practices over the next 5 years.
On March 16, the AOA submitted comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Record Incentive Program proposed rule. You can
read the comment letter in full or for more information on 'meaningful use' and the HIT provisions in ARRA known as the 'HITECH Act' go to
www.do-online.org/HIT.