Meaningful use: Lessons to share and learn

Beth Walsh, Editor, CMIO

Meaningful use will be a huge topic at this year’s Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Convention & Exhibition. It’s been 10 months since hospitals could begin the attestation process of the EHR Incentive Program. That means there will be numerous sessions all about meaningful use (MU) led by people from hospitals that have gone through the process and can share their lessons learned. With so much money on the line, any tips and tricks will be well worth the time spent at the sessions. Listed are CMIO’s top picks for MU sessions at HIMSS12.

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, PhD, will head a town hall meeting during the convention as well as a keynote address at 8:30am on Thursday, Feb. 23.  Meanwhile, those interested in meaningful use and related health IT topics can tune into the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) blog, HealthITBuzz. Recently, Mostashari posted updates on EHR adoption progress in 2011 and his thoughts about health IT trends expected for 2012.

The percentage of non-hospital based physicians who have adopted a basic EHR doubled from 17 percent in 2008 to 34 percent in 2011, according to Mostashari. He also reported that ONC has funded 62 regional extension centers (RECs) nationwide and a national Health IT Research Center (HITRC) to help overcome the barriers to adoption and meaningful use. In addition, ONC put healthit.gov, a web-based information resource that serves as a “virtual 63^rd REC,” on the internet. As of mid-December, the REC program had enrolled over 116,000 priority primary care providers, exceeding the 100,000 goal for the end of 2011.

Mostashari, in his Jan. 25 blog post, reported that more than 20,000 eligible professionals and 1,200 hospitals are already receiving payments from the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Other good adoption signs, he wrote, include a survey indicating attainment of meaningful use is a top priority for more than two-thirds of hospital executives and a fivefold increase in e-prescribing by office-based physicians since 2000. “My prediction is that at least 100,000 providers will receive Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive payments by the end of 2012,” noted Mostashari. “But, in order for my prediction to come true, the entire health IT ecosystem, including technology vendors, physician and hospital leaders, regional extension centers, state-level health IT coordinators, public health agencies and many others need to pull together toward getting as many providers to meaningful use as possible.”

Some may consider that a grand prediction, but all signs point to each of those stakeholders doing their part to reach the goal.

How is your facility doing when it comes to meeting its meaningful use goals? We’d love to hear about your experience.

Beth Walsh
CMIO Editor
bwalsh@trimedmedia.com