CMS works to align meaningful use with related standards

Now that the public comment period has closed for the proposed rules on meaningful use of health IT, the policymakers at CMS are getting down to the work of reviewing the more than 2,000 comments that poured in over the past two months. It won't be an easy task. CMS must make sure the process is compatible with parallel rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on standards and certification of EMRs, plus a recently published ONC proposal that spells out a new certification process.

"There really is a dance among the regulations," Tony Trenkle, CMS director of e-health and standards, said at a Health IT Policy Committee meeting last week, Government Health IT reports. "The more complexity you build into this process, the more difficult it becomes to launch the program quickly."

So far, CMS has gone through about half the comments and already has identified certain themes--"once we waded through the 'government is evil' ones," according to Trenkle--that could result in changes when CMS finalizes the rules later this spring. A common recommendation, Trenkle said, is that CMS should offer more flexibility to providers in qualifying for federal health IT stimulus funding, including offering partial credit for meeting some of the requirements.

For more information:
- read this Government Health IT story

Related Articles:
No consensus on meaningful use so far
HHS hints at possible 'meaningful use' changes

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