July 29, 2010 Update
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will begin to make meaningful use incentive payments to eligible physicians and hospitals as early as May 2011, according to a senior CMS official, who detailed steps the agency is taking to start up the incentive program. CMS will open registration for the incentive program in January, said Karen Trudel, deputy director of CMS' Office of E-Health Standards & Services. To begin receiving payments, healthcare providers must verify that they have demonstrated for 90 days meaningful use of certified electronic health records. To fit in 90 days of meaningful use means, "that no one will be able to attest before April," she said. "The first payments will go out in the middle of May," she said at a July 28 meeting of the federal advisory Health IT Standards Committee.
http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=74328

July 19, 2010 Update
The final "meaningful use" rule for electronic medical record adoption gives physicians and hospitals some flexibility in meeting certain objectives to qualify for federal incentives. The final CMS rule divides the initial 25 meaningful use objectives into two categories: a core group of 15 objectives that physicians and hospitals must meet, and a "menu set" of 10 procedures from which they can choose any five to defer in 2011-12, the first round of the incentive program.
http://www.ama-assn.org/

July 13, 2010 Update
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued the final rules on Meaningful Use and Standards and Certification, which providers must follow in order to benefit from the approximate $27.3 billion in financial incentives over 10 years, authorized under the HITECH Act's EHR incentive program. Today, the HHS released a final regulation for the first two years (2011 and 2012) of this multiyear incentive program.
http://www.cmio.net/index.php

• Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Final Rule
• Standards, Implementation Specifications and Certification Criteria Final Rule
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services News Release
• New England Journal of Medicine Editorial from David Blumenthal, MD, the National Coordinator for Health IT

July 1, 2010 Update
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will integrate the reporting of quality measures from physicians in its Medicare program using electronic health records with those from providers who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs under the HITECH Act. The new health reform law requires combining the two programs by Jan. 1, 2012. Under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), physicians who participate in Medicare can receive incentives for reporting various quality measures, a select number of which are aimed at those who want to report using EHRs.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/

June 30, 2010 Update
In a meeting held June 25, the HIT Policy Committee approved recommendations by the Privacy and Security Tiger Team that would establish health information exchange credentials and help to protect personal health information. The HIT Policy Committee unanimously approved the Tiger Team's recommendations to establish digital exchange credentials that include verifying a provider's identity and allowing providers to delegate the verification process to authorized credentialing service providers.
http://govhealthit.com/

June 27, 2010 Update
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) on June 18, 2010 released a final rule outlining the process by which temporary certification bodies will be selected to test and certify Electronic Health Records (EHR) and EHR Modules. Through this temporary process, ONC will be identifying Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCB) through application and examination processes.

As this rule takes effect June 24, ONC will begin the selection process by accepting applications for ONC-ATCBs. ONC has committed to expedite this process in order to allow ATCBs to certify products as soon as possible. Although no clear timeframes are identified in the rule, it will likely take until late summer before the first organization(s) has been identified. While this rule begins the process for recognizing entities who will become ONC-ATCBs, it does not outline or clarify the criteria for certification of the MPM software. To this end, we continue to prepare for testing by review of the draft materials being prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

LSS Data Systems has been closely following the development of this rule as well as the other rules associated with meaningful use and the CMS incentive programs. The release of this temporary certification rule is the first step in getting our products certified for meaningful use. We expect the final rules establishing the Medicare and Medicaid incentives programs, including the criteria for achieving and demonstrating Meaningful Use, to be issued in the coming weeks. Once that happens (and following completion of the NIST testing materials and the availability of ONC-ACTB certification), LSS is committed to certifying our Client/Server 5.64, MAGIC 5.64, and MPM 6.05 releases.

June 22, 2010 Update
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched an official website to guide hospitals, medical professionals, and other stakeholders who want to learn more about the Medicare & Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs. Launched June 21, the website provides the most up-to-date, detailed information about the EHR incentive programs, which will provide payments to eligible professionals and hospitals as they implement and demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/
Link to new website -> http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/

June 18, 2010 Update
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today issued a final rule to establish a temporary certification program for electronic health record (EHR) technology. The temporary certification program establishes processes that organizations will need to follow in order to be authorized by the National Coordinator to test and certify EHR technology.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/06/20100618d.html
Link to Temporary Certification Program Final Rule

June 3, 2010 Update
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced $83.9 million in grants to help networks of health centers adopt electronic health records (EHR) and other health information technology (HIT) systems. The funds are part of the $2 billion allotted to HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program. Forty-five grants will support new and enhanced EHR implementation projects as well as HIT innovation projects. Eligible professionals practicing within health centers who are able to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology may be eligible for incentive payments provided under Medicaid and Medicare.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/06/20100603a.html

June 1, 2010 Update
The Missouri Health Information Technology Assistance Center, one of the 60 health IT Regional Extension Centers across the country created with federal stimulus funding, has begun its work aimed at helping thousands of primary care providers throughout Missouri select electronic health records best suited to their practices. The center, which was awarded $6.8 million through the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), will assist 3,200 primary care providers in better understanding electronic health records through a variety of outreach and education programs.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/

May 27, 2010 Update
The Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced a new round of two additional Beacon awards totaling $30.3 million on May 26. Earlier this month the ONC announced awards of $220 million to 15 Beacon Communities across the nation from Maine to Hawaii that will serve as models for the broad use of healthcare information technology. The selected Beacon Communities will use health IT resources within their community as a foundation for bringing doctors, hospitals, community health programs, federal programs and patients together to design new ways of improving quality and efficiency to benefit patients and taxpayers.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/