Implementing Meaningful Use Essay

Write an 1100-1,500-word essay describing the electronic health records incentive programs, also known as meaningful use. It offers financial incentives and was designed to improve quality, safety, and efficiency of care through the use of electronic health records.

1. Describe the three stages of meaningful use and their measures.
2. Explain the challenges and barriers faced by facilities in implementing each stage of meaningful use.

I live in El Paso, Texas

I work in a Managed Care organization. I look at Hierarchical Condition Category coding (HCC codes) and proper documentation for accurately diagnosing and reimbursement. More specifically, I work for WellMed Medical Management. I am a clinical nurse coding consultant. Implementing Meaningful Use Essay

Include three to five references, including your textbook.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Please use the resources attached. Does not require an abstract

Meaningful Use

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) would define Meaningful Use as the use of Electronic Health Record technology in a manner that may be classified as meaningful. This is, for instance, an electronic prescription. It should be ensured that certified electronic health record technology is connected such that it provides the electronic exchange of information to improve the quality of care provided. Through the use of certified EHR technology, healthcare providers need to submit information on the quality of care to the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) (Lin et al., 2019).

The above concept of meaningful use rests on five pillars of policy priorities for health outcomes. These are; engage patients and families in their health, improving safety, quality, and efficiency of care while reducing health disparities, improving the coordination of care, improving both population and public health, and ensuring there is adequate security protection and privacy for personal health information (Wani and Malhotra 2018).

Since the conception of the concept, Meaningful Use has consisted of three stages. The first stage sets up the foundation for the use of the program; it achieves this by establishing the requirements for the electronic capture of all clinical data. This stage also includes providing patients with an electronic copy of their health information. The second stage involves expansion on the criteria of the first stage. This stage, however, focuses on the advancement of clinical processes. The second stage also ensures that the meaningful use of electronic health records will support the priorities and aims of the National Quality Strategy. The criteria in stage 2 also encourage the use of certified EHR technology for the continuous improvement of quality at the point of care together with the exchange of information in a structured format. Implementing Meaningful Use Essay

The final rule was released in 2015 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), establishing the third and final stage of Meaningful Use. This rule would focus on improving health outcomes. Furthermore, the rule would modify the second stage to ease the requirements for reporting and align with other Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services programs.

As of 2018, all healthcare professionals and clinicians that were eligible and that were previously taking part in Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program would be required to report on requirements of the Quality Payment Program.

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Nair and Dreyfus (2018) have shown that providers who served a high proportion of patients that were insured by Medicaid had relatively lower rates of electronic medical record use. Projects have looked into factors that could explain the above finding, including the specific features of the meaningful use Incentive Program as well as if the program was responsible for any barriers to participation for Medicaid providers. Particularly, studies have focused on whether the characteristics or work-environment of the Medicaid-population were responsible for the barriers. It has also been the focus of many studies, whether or not the present challenges can be mitigated through the use of technical assistance combined with the Medicaid MU Incentive Program.

Studies show that the barriers towards the meaningful use and adoption of electronic health records were specific to a particular stage and were not unique to providers who mostly served Medicaid-insured patients. This was after process noted few differences between private-insured and Medicaid populations. They would point out that most people, depending on their status vis-à-vis employment would move on and off Medicaid. The barriers that were apparent would prove specific to the type of providers that were eligible for the Medicaid MU program rather than a program. Implementing Meaningful Use Essay

During the implementation if stage one, many providers would state resistance by organizations as the foremost barrier to adoption and implementation. This resistance is a function of organizational culture that has been based on paper records. This was particular the case in organizations with older medical providers. Older practitioners are less willing to learn how to use new systems and have these systems replace the traditional filing system. Solutions provided for this barrier included the promotion of a more proactive approach by Medicaid agencies to help providers in achieving meaningful usage. Secondly, a more coordinated and targeted approach could be provided with the relevant methods, tools, and processes for the first stage of meaningful usage for Medicaid providers, especially those of age.

The biggest barrier of the second stage would be reported for both adopters and non-adopters. It involves needing assistance with the assessment of their system needs, workflow as well as in choosing the correct electronic health record. Providers have expressed the need for intuitive systems that would be easier to use and train new employees to use. The needs assessments in questions need to be inclusive of the considerations of how both the software and the hardware worth for the specific practice. This will include ergonomic assessments, the location of critical equipment and examination room configuration. The transmission of immunization data to the public health agencies was also highlighted as a barrier to the implementation of the second stage of meaningful use. Many providers would stress their interest and willingness to engage in a bidirectional transmission of immunization data with the state. Currently, ongoing transmission of this data has been proposed as a core stage 2 objective. This exchange would however be unidirectional and would be contingent on the ability of the system used by the state to accept electronic data (Rathert, et al., 2019). Implementing Meaningful Use Essay

Finally, the third stage of MU has been seen to be failing in that it possesses only one decision support rule which constitutes a barrier to implementation of meaningful use of HER technology. Currently, the only decision support rule in existence is thedrug-drug and drug-allergy check. It is the objective of the CMS however, to have at least five clinical decision support rules in place. For this to be effective, however, it will need to be coupled by an effort by vendors to suggest possible clinical decision support rules as well as how they may be implemented. There are also concerns on the ongoing costs related to maintaining electronic health record systems. This barrier has also been cited by several providers. EHR vendors were said to charge high fees for setting up the systems so they are capable of transmitting lab tests electronically or to provide patients with access to their provider’s EHR (Joneidy, and Burke 2019).

References

Joneidy, S., & Burke, M. (2019). Towards a deeper understanding of meaningful use in electronic health records. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36(2), 134-152.

Lin, Y. K., Lin, M., & Chen, H. (2019). Do electronic health records affect quality of care? Evidence from the HITECH Act. Information Systems Research, 30(1), 306-318.

Nair, A., & Dreyfus, D. (2018). Technology alignment in the presence of regulatory changes: The case of meaningful use of information technology in healthcare. International journal of medical informatics, 110, 42-51.

Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., & Fleig-Palmer, M. (2019). Seven years after Meaningful Use: Physicians’ and nurses’ experiences with electronic health records. Health care management review, 44(1), 30-40.

Wani, D., & Malhotra, M. (2018). Does the meaningful use of electronic health records improve patient outcomes?. Journal of Operations Management, 60, 1-18. Implementing Meaningful Use Essay