Meaningful Use is a three stage process for providers to not just implement an Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology, but to show an increase in the quality of care and the quantity of care they provide to their patients.

Provider EHR Incentives

Under the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, physicians are eligible for financial incentives for demonstrating "meaningful use" of an electronic health record (EHR) system.  Generally, almost all Medicare providers will be eligible for up to $44,000 in incentives paid out over 5 years beginning in 2011.  Medicaid providers will be eligible for up to $63,750 paid out over six years.

Physicians who are planning on recieving Medicare incentives will report to CMS and physicians who are planning on recieving Medicaid incentives will report to their State.

Reporting of Objectives

The main set of items providers and hospitals will report are known as "Objectives" and they are broken down into two parts:  core objectives and menu objectives.  The objectives are broad policy goals that CMS hopes to achieve through meaningful use - such as encouraging electronic prescribing.  The measures are the actual criteria that providers and hospitals will have to meet to realize that objective.

The objectives are broken up into two parts: core objectives and menu objectives. The core objectives constist of 15 items that must be demonstrated, while the menu objectives consist of 10 items of which 5 must be demonstrated.  It is recommended that 7 or 8 be chosen of the menu objectives in case any of the orignally chosen 5 can not be successfully demonstrated.

Reporting of Clinical Quality Measures

The clinical quality measures has three parts:  core measures, alternate core measures and menu measures.  The core measures consist of three items and the alternate core consist of 3 items of which 3 must be reported to CMS for Medicare or your State for Medicaid.  The menu measures consist of 38 items of which 3 must be reported to CMS for Medicare or your State for Medicaid.

A list of the objectives and measures and what is required for each can be found here.

 OKPCA created a crosswalk displaying the similarities between UDS, PCMH, and Meaningful Use that can be downloaded by clicking here.

For more information about Meaningful Use click the link below.

CMS and Meaningful Use