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Proposed CMS regs would implement Medicare incentives for electronic health records

In the January 13 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued proposed regulations that would implement the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that provide incentive payments to eligible health care professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs that adopt and "meaningfully use" certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.

The proposed regulations would specify the following:

• the initial criteria that eligible professionals and hospitals must meet in order to qualify for the incentive payment
• the calculation of the incentive payment amounts
• payment adjustments for covered professional services under Medicare
• inpatient hospital services provided by eligible professionals and eligible hospitals that fail to "meaningfully" use certified EHR technology; and other program participation requirements

Also as required by the ARRA, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will issue related interim final regulations to specify the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) adoption of an initial set of standards, implementation, specifications, and certification criteria for EHRs. The ONC also will issue proposed regulations on the process for organizations to conduct the certification of EHR technology.

The CMS defines "meaningful use" as describing the use of health information technology that furthers the goals of information exchange among health care professionals.

Comments on the proposed regulations must be submitted by March 15 to the CMS, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-0033-P, P.O. Box 8013, Baltimore, MD 21244-8013. In commenting, refer to file code CMS-0033-P. Comments also may be submitted electronically via the Internet to http://www.regulations.gov. For further information on electronic health record incentive program issues, contact Elizabeth Holland at (410) 786-1309.

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