“Meaningful Use” for EHR Spending
Where we are headed in the next months is a discussion into what “meaningful use” means and how to determine what qualifies for this designation which leads to…drum roll please…WHO GETS THE MONEY! Everyone wants the money but there will have to be standards and guidelines. Lets just hope we won’t have to deal with a 50 pages book to explain….Thanks Bob for the great article from NextGov.com
The United States can develop an electronic health record system that could, within the next five years, help prevent a million heart attacks annually and reduce the number of medication errors by 50 percent, a top health official in New York City said on Tuesday.
Farzad Mostashari, assistant commissioner of the New York City Health Department, told a meeting of the Health Information Technology policy committee that electronic health record systems also can reduce hospital re-admissions by half, and provide patients with access to their own medical information as well as health departments nationwide.
All these accomplishments are “achievable goals” and meet the definition of “meaningful use” of electronic health record systems as required by the 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act.
Mostashari is co-chairman of a policy committee working group for HIT, which is charged with defining what the law means by meaningful use of electronic health record systems.
The discussion of meaningful use at the federal advisory committee meeting on Tuesday was the beginning of a historical discussion that would lead to development of a better health care system, said David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology in the Health and Human Services Department. The committee should develop simple, but specific, definitions that will lead to what the law denotes by the meaningful use of electronic health record systems. Read Further
