Defining moment for meaningful use

We have reached a fulcrum point in the history of health care in our country. The announcement on Tuesday of the final rule establishing Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) creates a framework for change that will have reverberations throughout the health care industry. An important companion rule (pdf) was also released that establishes standards, specifications and certification criteria for EHRs.

David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology at Health and Human Services (HHS), and Marilyn Tavenner, principal deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), published an overview of the meaningful use rule in the the New England Journal of Medicine. John D. Halamka, of both Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, wrote an excellent analysis of the final standards rule on his blog. I expect in the coming months there will be a great deal of parsing of the language of these two rules, which total 1,092 pages.

For my initial analysis, see the post on O'Reilly Radar ~ Analysis: A defining moment for "meaningful use"

The rule has added the recording of advanced directives and a provision for providing patients with educational materials, which were not included in the proposed rule. However, the proposed rule's requirement to provide an electronic copy of a patient's medical record is maintained in the final rule. This record must contain diagnostic test results, problem list, medication list, medication allergies, and for hospitals, discharge summary and procedures for at least 50 percent of patients within three business days. This requirement may prove to be one of the most difficult to achieve, but as Regina Holliday's poignant testimony during the press conference proves (video below), it is vital to include consumers in the process.



Regina Holliday is a 37-year old mother of two and an art teacher. Last summer, her husband, Fred, died from kidney cancer at the age of 39. She writes at the Medical Advocacy Blog and tweets at @ReginaHolliday.