Final Stage 2 Meaningful Use Expected Early September

On Wednesday this week Bloomberg.com reported CMS expects the Stage 2 Final Rule to be released by the beginning of September. On an August 14 webinar hosted by CMS and the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management (PAHCOM), Robert Anthony, a specialist with CMS’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services, discussed the incentive program and the timing of the release of  Stage 2.

Back in early March, two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking were published in the Federal Register. One was issued by ONC and the other by CMS. The CMS rule is the “Meaningful Use rule”. It deals with the new requirements that CMS is proposing for stage 2 meaningful use and what participants in the EHR Incentive Programs would have to meet to demonstrate meaningful use in the program.

According to Bloomberg, while no specific details on the Stage 2 final rule were announced on this webinar, potential CMS audits of providers attesting to Stage 1 Meaningful Use was addressed.  Anthony said the majority of audits would be desk audits and focus on providers who exhibit substantial non-compliance. Anthony also said providers preparing for a potential audit need to “check and double check their data before submitting it to CMS”  and “retain all relevant supporting documents pertaining to their EHRs.”

[Related Article: Meaningful Use Audits Begin]

The timing of early September works well for us as we have Robert Anthony on board as our guest on MU Live! on September 11. We will be focusing on the release of the CMS rule as well as the ONC EHR Certification rule which will follow throughout the coming weeks. While the CMS rule focuses on demonstration of meaningful use, the ONC rule outlines the certification capabilities and standards along with tests that Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) would be required to do. The two rules overlap some but they are different.