Guide to Initial Stories on Final Rules for Incentives, Certification, Standards

AMA’s American Medical News
“Meaningful use” final rule offers some flexibility
By Chris Silva, amednews staff. Posted July 15, 2010
“Physicians now can defer up to five EMR objectives in the first two years and still qualify for Medicare or Medicaid financial incentives.”

HIMSS’s Healthcare IT News
Healthcare CIOs offer first take on final rule
July 14, 2010 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
“They felt their concerns had been taken into account, they said, and they especially appreciated the rule’s greater flexibility.”

Stakeholders still assessing final meaningful use rule
July 14, 2010 | Diana Manos, Senior Editor
“Initial response seemed to be cautiously optimistic, but the American Hospital Association expressed concerns.”

HIMSS’s Government HealthIT
Lower bar to meaningful use assures more EHR participation
By Mary Mosquera   Wednesday, July 14, 2010
“If initial reactions are anything to go by, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hit a home run with its final rule for meaningful use of electronic health records, simultaneously lowering the requirements bar and increasing the likelihood of more healthcare providers participating in the CMS’ incentive program and adopting EHRs.”

CMS abandons absolutes, adds flexibility to meaningful use
By Mary Mosquera             Tuesday, July 13, 2010
“In its final meaningful rule published today, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has abandoned its original all-or-nothing approach to offering incentives for electronic health record adoption and opted for flexibility.”

Public comments reshaped CMS final rule
By Mary Mosquera    Tuesday, July 13, 2010
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services received some 2,000 comments after it published its proposed meaningful use rule in January, and they were key both to changes in the scope of the final rule published today and to the speed with which it was adopted.”

ModernHealthcare.com
Meaningful-use regulations released
By Andis Robeznieks      Posted: July 13, 2010
“ ‘After reviewing the comments, we agree that requiring that (eligible professionals), eligible hospitals, and (critical access hospitals) satisfy all of the objectives and their associated measures in order to be considered a meaningful EHR user would impose too great a burden and would result in an unacceptably low number of EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs being able to qualify as meaningful EHR users in the first two years of the program,’the rule states.”

AMDIS members take on ‘meaningful use’
By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer Posted: July 15, 2010
“The recent release of the new rules on meaningful use of electronic health-record systems dominated the discussion during the opening day of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems’ annual Physician Computer Connection Symposium in Ojai, Calif., on Wednesday.”

HealthLeaders Media
Meaningful Use Final Rule Released by HHS
Janice Simmons, for HealthLeaders Media, July 13, 2010
“While the proposed rule initially called on eligible professionals to meet 25 requirements (23 for hospitals) in their use of EHRs, the requirements for meaningful use incentives now are divided into core requirements that are mandatory and a menu of 10 additional requirements—of which five need to be met, according to David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

Information Week
CIOs, Others React To Meaningful Use Final Rule
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
InformationWeek         July 14, 2010
“While CIOs, vendors and other health IT stakeholders are still poring over the 864-page e-health meaningful use final rule released this week by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, reaction so far to the HITECH Act’s $20 billion-plus financial incentive program’s regulations has been mostly positive.”

John Halamka’s Life as  Healthcare CIO blog
A Do it Yourself Presentation on the Standards Rule
July 14, 2010
“Just as I did with the Meaningful Use Rule, I’ve prepared a presentation that you can use for your Board and stakeholders to review the Standards Final Rule.”

A Do it Yourself Presentation on the Meaningful Use Final Rule
July 14, 2010
“Just as I did in January with the Meaningful Use NPRM, I’ve prepared a presentation that you can use for your Board and stakeholders to review the requirements the final Meaningful Use Rule. Feel free to use it without attribution to me.”

An Analysis of the Final Standards Rule
July 13, 2010
“At 10am today, the final Standards Rule was released as described on my previous blog. Here are additional details for stakeholders who want a technical analysis.”

Meaningful Use and the Standards are Finalized
July 13, 2010
“Today at 10am, CMS and ONC released the final rules that will guide electronic health record rollouts for the next 5 years…Here’s my analysis of the key changes in the Final Rule.”

New York Times
Standards Issued for Electronic Health Records
By ROBERT PEAR     Published: July 13, 2010
“The rules significantly scale back proposed requirements that the health care industry had denounced as unrealistic.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog
‘Meaningful Use’ Regs for Electronic Medical Records Finally Drop!
By Katherine Hobson  July 13, 2010
“The final regulations — all 864 pages of them – on what will constitute “meaningful use” of electronic medical records are now here. And the changes they include make it easier for hospitals and doctors to qualify next year for the first round of incentive payments for adopting EMRs.” (Probably requires paid subscription.)

iHealthBeat
Final Rules on ‘Meaningful Use,’ EHR Standards Released Today
iHealthBeat story roundup. “Blumenthal said the final meaningful use rule offers health care providers more flexibility than the proposed regulations released in January.”

CMIO
AMDIS: Health execs initially pleased with meaningful use rules
By Mary Stevens, July 14, 2010
“OJAI, Calif.—A first look at the 864-page final rule for Meaningful Use and EHR Certification shows that policymakers “listened and responded” to some physicians’ concerns, said speakers Pat Wise, RN, vice president of healthcare information systems at HIMSS, and Michael Zaroukian, MD, PhD, CMIO and associate professor of medicine at Michigan State University, during a presentation at the annual AMDIS Physician-Computer Connection Symposium Wednesday.”

CMS, ONC release meaningful use final rules
By CMIO Editorial Staff       July 13, 2010
“In the final regulation is divided into two groups: a set of core objectives that constitute a starting point for meaningful use of EHRs and a separate menu of additional important activities from which providers will choose several to implement in the first two years, Blumenthal explained.”

e-Healthcare Marketing posts
See previous post on e-Healthcare Marketing for Final Rules PDFs, Press Release, Fact Sheets, and additional info.
See Dr. Blumenthal’s blog post on same subject as above, republished on e-Healthcare Marketing.
See Letter #17 from Dr. Blumenthal.