Panel OKs HIT ‘meaningful use’ standards

The federal HIT Standards Committee approved Tuesday a set of recommended quality measures and standards that providers could use to demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records (Source: “Health IT group approves standards and quality measures,” Government Health IT,  July 22, 2009)

Under the federal economic stimulus package, hospitals and physicians who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs will qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

The standards panel endorsed a matrix of 27 quality measures and 12 standards that build on each other to improve patient outcomes. The standards call for health care providers to use health IT tools for transmitting:

• Continuity of care documents;
• Discharge summaries;
• Inpatient and outpatient prescriptions;
• Laboratory test results; and
• Other structured health data.

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, must craft an interim final rule on meaningful use criteria by December. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also is expected to issue a rule in December defining meaningful use for the incentive program.