Meaningful Use: A year in review

After much anticipation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the final rules for Stage 1 of the meaningful use Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program. While the new rules appear to offer more flexibility to providers in terms of actually meeting meaningful use, indications as far back as last year--and as recent as last month--pointed to extremely strict regulations being enforced.

"The question healthcare providers are facing today is whether we are pushing too hard, too fast to make this important change" Blumenthal wrote in June. "I respectfully submit, no. In turn, I ask, 'Can we make these changes expeditiously enough?'"

So how were we finally able to get to this point? FierceEMR looks back over the past year at all of the twists and turns involved in shaping meaningful use regulations. Click on the links below to get a better idea of what went into the last year of meaningful use preparation.

May - August 2009

September - December 2009

February - April 2010

May - July 2010