Meaningful Use

Stage 1 Overview & Requirements

 

Empower Systems™ Makes Meaningful Use Compliance Easily Attainable for Doctors, Nurses, IT, and Administrators. Empower Systems™ user-friendliness leads to 100% physician acceptance of our ONC Certified Comprehensive EHR solutions. All of the following 15 Meaningful Use Core Measures can be achieved with the assistance of Threshold Reporting for real-time tracking of your facility’s Meaningful Use Compliance. This is the key to taking full advantage of ARRA/HITECH incentives in 2011 and beyond.

This Complete EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by an ONC-ATCB in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments. empowersystems Certified on 9/30/10, empowersystems (Inpatient) #10012010-3716-1 / empowersystems (Ambulatory) #09302010-6888-1.

Click Here to verify Inpatient Certification.
Click Here to verify Ambulatory Certification.

 

Requirements

  • CPOE for Medication Orders
  • Drug Interaction Checks
  • Maintain Problem List
  • ePrescribing
  • Active Medication List
  • Medication Allergy List
  • Record Demographics
  • Record Vital Signs
  • Record Smoking Status
  • Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs)
  • Clinical Decision Support Rule
  • Electronic Copy of Health Information
  • Clinical Summaries
  • Electronic Exchange of Clinical Information
  • Protect Electronic Health Information

Important Dates

 

In order to maximize Meaningful Use incentives and meet all compliance deadlines, we have created this high-level overview document for your reference. As milestones pass and new compliance dates are confirmed, this document will be continually updated and shared with our clients.

July 1, 2013 :: Absolute Deadline for Hospitals Seeking 100% of CMS Incentives
If a hospital seeks the Total or Maximum amount of money for which they are eligible (i.e. four yearly payments), the deadline to have collected 90 days worth of data using a certified EHR system is July 1, 2013.  In other words, the system must be live for 90 days and collecting valid data that meets Meaningful Use Stage 1 rules prior to that date.

September 1, 2014 :: Deadline of Data Collection for Any Funds
The last date to begin collecting data to receive any payments is 10/1/2014. Hospitals attesting according to this timeline will receive only 2 payments, which will be 50% and 25% of what their Calculated Yearly Payment would have been, respectively.

October 1, 2014 :: Beginning of Reimbursement Reductions
Hospitals that have not started collecting data by 10/1/2014 may see a reduction in Medicare reimbursement starting in the Federal Fiscal Year 2016.

Attesting Each Subsequent Year
A hospital must attest Each Subsequent Year to receive that year’s payment.  This data collection period is not 90 days; it is now 365 days for payments 2, 3, and 4, which correspond to the Federal Fiscal Year of October 1 to September 30 (10/1-9/30).
Maximum Payments Possible
There are a maximum of 4 yearly payments possible.  The first is the largest, with subsequent payments reduced by a factor of 25% per year.

Attestation Based on Stages
A hospital will attest using the rule that is current (Stage 1 is the current rule as of the drafting of this document). If by the time of the next attestation, Stage 2 has not been finalized (according to CMS it will likely not be 2014), the hospital again attests using Stage 1 as the rule.