Health Care Practitioners Generally Approve of Final Meaningful Use Rule

The final rule on meaningful use was released on July 13, and is significantly more flexible than earlier versions. Specifically, the final rule includes “core” and “menu” requirements.

It appears that practitioners are generally happy with the final rule on meaningful use that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the National Coordination (ONC) released on July 13.

The 864-page document, which took into account more than 2,000 comments received during a 60-day period, is significantly more flexible than earlier versions.

Specifically, the final rule includes “core” and “menu” requirements. During the first year of adoption, also called stage 1, physicians must comply with 15 core objectives, and may choose five more objectives from a menu of 10. This relief from an all-or-nothing approach should help more practitioners who have certified Electronic Health Records (EHRs) achieve meaningful use easily.

That doesn’t mean EHR implementation will be simple, however. Critics of the final rule note that although its CPOE requirement was scaled back quite a bit, the reporting burden will still be a challenge to individual physicians and small groups.

As a result, the earlier health care practitioners can get started the better.

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