This is Part 3 of our Three-part Blog Series, “Introduction of Stage 3,” which outlines the objectives finalized for Stage 3 under the October 16, 2015 Final Rule.
Meaningful Use was introduced as part of the HITECH Act as a means to encourage healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records, and also begin to shift to additional quality care metrics. Yet, since Meaningful Use began in 2011, there have been many critics who assert that the program does not achieve the meaning in Meaningful Use. As such, there have been multiple iterations of the rule and the various stages. We will present to you the latest changes that you need to know in this three part blog post series.
Part three of the series, “Introduction of Stage 3” outlines the objectives finalized for Stage 3 under the October 16th Final Rule. You can view Part One of our series, “Changes for 2015” here. Part Two of our the series, “Changes for 2016-2017” can be viewed here.
Optional 2017 Reporting and Required 2018 Reporting
Stage 3 will be available for attestation in 2017, although it won’t be required as previously thought. Eligible Providers will be given the option of attesting to Stage 3 in 2017 for a 90 day reporting period. In 2018, all Providers, regardless of what stage they were scheduled to be on, are to attest to Stage 3 Objectives for a calendar year reporting period. The optional year in 2017 will allow providers to “test the waters” with a shorter reporting period and begin preparing for Stage 3 before they are required to implement it.
Eight Objectives
Unlike previous iterations of Meaningful Use, there are no Core and Menu Objective Sets, only required Objectives. Modified Stage 2 set the tone by absorbing previous measures into one set of measures, a precedent that Stage 3 will follow. Stage 3 features many measures from previous of versions of Meaningful Use, often with higher thresholds and less exclusions.
Stage 3 Objectives Summary
| Objective 1 | Protect Patient Health Information | Conduct a Security Risk Analysis within the Reporting Period (RP) |
|---|---|---|
| Objective 2 | Electronic Prescribing | More than 60% of permissible prescriptions written by the Eligible Provider (EP) in the RP are queried for a drug formulary and transmitted electronically |
| Objective 3 | Clinical Decision Support | 1 – Implement five Clinical Decision Support Rules related to four or more Clinical Quality Measures |
| 2 – Enable Drug-Drug and Drug-Allergy interaction checks for the entire RP | ||
| Objective 4 | Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) | 1 – More than 60% of Medication orders during the RP are created through CPOE |
| 2 – More than 60% of lab orders during the RP are created through CPOE | ||
| 3 – More than 60% of radiology orders during the RP are created through CPOE | ||
| Objective 5 | Patient Electronic Access | 1 – More than 80% of unique patients seen by the EP during the RP are provided timely access to view online, download, or transmit their health records and can be accessed using the application of the patient’s choice |
| 2 – More than 35% of patients seen by the EP in the RP receive patient specific education resources that were identified by the CEHRT and receive electronic access to those materials | ||
| Objective 6 | Coordination of Care through Patient Engagement | 1 – More than 10% of unique patients seen by the EP during the RP views online, downloads, or electronically transmits their health information or accessing their health information from an application of their choice |
| 2 – More than 25% of unique patients seen by the EP during the RP are sent an electronic message using the secure messaging feature of CEHRT | ||
| 3 – For more than 5% of unique patients seen in the RP by the EP, patient-generated health data or data from a non-clinical setting is incorporated into the CEHRT | ||
| Objective 7 | Health Information Exchange | 1 – For more than 50% of transitions of care and referrals, the EP that refers the patient should create and electronically exchange the summary of care record using CEHRT |
| 2 – For more than 40% of transitions of care or referrals received by the EP where the EP has never encountered the patient, the EP receives and incorporates into the patient’s record an electronic summary of care document | ||
| 3 – For more than 80% of transitions of care or referrals received by the EP where the EP has never encountered the patient, the EP performs clinical information reconciliation | ||
| Objective 8 | Public Health and Clinical Data Registry Reporting | 1 – Immunization Registry Reporting |
| 2 – Syndromic Surveillance Reporting | ||
| 3 – Electronic Case Reporting | ||
| 4 – Public Health Registry Reporting | ||
| 5 – Clinical Data Registry Reporting |
Still confused? Do you need one-on-one guidance regarding your organization? We can help! Please contact our Meaningful Use Expert, Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser (Kathryn.Wickenhauser@ScanSTATTechnologies.com) for guidance about how these changes impact you.