CMS to build public health agency and registry readiness database

To assist eligible providers with meeting Meaningful Use (MU) requirements, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is building a database to help entities determine the readiness of public health agencies and registries to receive electronic data from certified EHRs, according to a Federal Register notice. Determining such readiness is required for objectives and measures in both MU Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Public comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking for MU Stage 2 stated that a CMS database on readiness of public health agencies and registries would help reduce burden on individual providers. The agency agreed in its final rule for MU Stage 2, and stated that it would create such a database.

The database will be made publicly available on the CMS website in order to provide a centralized repository of this information. CMS will query about 250 public health agencies and registries to collect the required data.

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