What is "Meaningful Use"?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:

1. The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care.
   
   
2. The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.

"Meaningful use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.

 What are the Criteria for Meaningful Use

The criteria for meaningful use will be staged in three steps over the course of the next five years.

• Stage 1 (2011 and 2012) sets the baseline for electronic data capture and information sharing.
  
  
• Stage 2 (expected to be implemented in 2013)
  
  
•  Stage 3 (expected to be implemented in 2015) will continue to expand on this baseline and be developed through future rule making.

How do I Meet Meaningful Use Requirements?

To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:

• Medicare EHR Incentive Program—Eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology every year they participate in the program.
  
  
• Medicaid EHR Incentive Program—Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals may qualify for incentive payments if they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use in their first year of participation. They must successfully demonstrate meaningful use for subsequent participation years.
  
  
• Adopted:  Acquired and installed certified EHR technology.
   
  
• Implemented: Began using certified EHR technology. 
  
  
• Upgraded: Expanded existing technology to meet certification requirements.
  

http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/30_Meaningful_Use.asp#BOOKMARK1