Meaningful Use – Stage 2 (Part 2 of 2)

In last month’s column, we began our discussion of Stage 2 of meaningful use. As a reminder, we noted that clinicians must meet or exceed the thresholds for the 17 core objectives and three of six menu objectives, as well as report on defined Clinical Quality Measures. We reviewed in detail the rationale for the program, as well as details of the core and menu measures.

For Stage 2 of meaningful use, the menu items and quality measures are aimed at enhancing actionable decision support to improve the quality of medical care and enable population management for patients who come into our office (and even for those who don’t). Stage 2 is also meant to facilitate physician-patient communication.

[RW] National quality strategy domains

As a point of reminder and clarification, on August 29th the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule allowing certain eligible providers the flexibility to continue using the Stage 1 criteria for the 2014 attestation year, even if they were due to start Stage 2. Unfortunately, this only applies to those who have been unable to obtain the 2014-certified software in time because of vendor delays. The reprieve does not extend to those who can’t meet Stage 2 due to measure difficulty or procrastination in purchasing software or adopting new work flow. As always, we recommend speaking with a meaningful use expert or consultant before attempting to take advantage of this flexibility. Either way, you’ll need to proceed with the 2014 Clinical Quality Measures, as these new definitions are now required by both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 goals. In this month’s EHR Report, we will highlight the most noteworthy 2014 Clinical Quality Measures.

Clinical Quality Measures are meant to measure and track the quality of health care services that are provided by the practitioner. Clinical Quality Measures are constructed to measure these aspects of care:

• Health outcomes

• Cinical processes

• Patient safety

• Efficient use of health care resources

• Care coordination

• Patient engagements

• Population and public health

• Adherence to clinical guidelines

Beginning in 2014, practitioners must select and report on 9 out of a list of 64 approved Clinical Quality Measures for the EHR Incentive Programs.