ONC Seeks Comments for Stage 3 Meaningful Use Criteria

Many healthcare providers continue to work on phasing out paper charts in lieu of electronic charting methods. Still, the number of providers who have successfully adopted EHR software is growing daily, and CMS has paid out more than $5.7 billion in EHR incentives to doctors who have met Meaningful Use criteria thus far.

With stage 1 reporting periods coming to a close for providers looking to qualify for maximum incentive pay-offs and final stage 2 guidelines soon to be released, work groups associated with the ONC’s Policy and Standards committees have started working on proposed criteria for stage 3 and are looking to get public comments. After a full-day hearing on June 8 in which committee workgroups rehashed previous Meaningful Use recommendations, as well as comments from a 2010 hearing on patient and family engagement, the three groups settled on a group of questions for the public.

One request for comments, reports Health Data Management, includes ways to deliver high quality care using real-time clinical decision support, as well as having the ability to get answers about patient populations through EHR queries. The other request focuses on incorporating patient-generated data from personal health records other external sources into medical facilities’ existing EHR systems. The goal is to provide a higher quality of care by ensuring that caregivers have access to each patient’s full medical history.

For a full list of questions regarding stage 3 Meaningful Use criteria, click here.