After making a lot of hue & cry by healthcare authors, practitioners & consultants, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has finally decided to come up with the definition of ‘Meaningful Use’ that pass the legal bindings of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009 (ARRA).
Here, ‘Meaningful Use’ is also associated with the transmission of minimum necessary health information to authorized personnel for accomplishing a well-defined purpose. It says that covered entities must employ reasonable efforts to limit the amount of protected health information to associates and government entities.
CCHIT has granted certifications to 14 organizations till date to sell EHR applications across the US. These organizations would work according to a comprehensive program and conduct on-site inspections for key aspects for physician’s usability. ‘Meaningful Use’ provides an assurance to all non-technical physicians to qualify themselves for the ARRA financial incentives awarded by CMS. Hence, EHR vendors ensure that all complex needs are met by the installed application successfully, with convenience.
According to CCHIT, the preliminary ARRA 2011 certification tells providers that a certified healthcare IT organization is capable of performing and providing ‘Meaningful Use’ of the requested information. After the release of final rule for ‘Meaning Use’, all HIT vendors will be required to update their installed applications immediately.
Undoubtedly, ‘Meaningful Use’ would really contribute in improving the overall efficiency of the healthcare system. It will enable the physicians to take result-oriented decisions on the basis of disciplined database building. Now the flow of information is double-sided, i.e, patients & doctors are equally posted on things.
Finally, I wish that my serious attempts will give a sense of explanation to Healthcare facilitators about the ‘Meaningful Use’ of information & application, for the successful implementation of EHR all across the US.
8 users commented in " CCHIT defines ‘Meaningful Use’ "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackCan you explain to me the meaning of “reasonable’. I get worried because different people may define “reasonable” differently. Then I might be back to square one and spend/waste money for finding something that can support the “reasonable” use.
Thank you very much for your article.
Many believe that CCHIT is just a bureaucratic waste and it should be really called C*HIT
Dear Susan,
Here, “reasonable” has been used to state the minimum but necessary and logical efforts required for increasing the chances of detection before transmitting an information/message.
Hope that answers your query!
Thanks,
Ankit Agaria
Biz Assist Services
http://www.bizassist.co.in
CCHIT doesn’t define meaningful use. The government does. CCHIT doesn’t even certify meaningful use. They are hoping to become a body that certifies EHR against the HHS standards. Only problem is that the government hasn’t released an EHR certification criteria yet. Not to mention, the government hasn’t recognized any bodies that will handle the EHR certification.
Anything that CCHIT has done up until now is just guess work.
Dear John,
Thanks for the comments.
Kindly log on to: http://www.cchit.org/ and check for the updates with reference to the article.
For more clarification, feel free to mail me your queries.
Best Regards,
Ankit Agaria
Biz Assist Services
http://www.bizassist.co.in
Dear Mr. John,
Kindly log on to:http://www.cchit.org/ and check for the necessary updates with reference to the above article.
Moreover, feel free to get in touch with me over mail for further clarifications.
Thanks,
Ankit Agaria
Biz Assist Services
Are you kidding me? Of course, I know all about the CCHIT website. Too bad your article misinterprets what’s really happening with CCHIT. Plus, even if CCHIT says they are ready to meet the certified EHR and meaningful use guidelines, that doesn’t mean that they do. HHS still hasn’t fully defined those terms and so no one can make that claim.
CCHIT is still just making a best guess, but they aren’t the body that will determine the criteria.
Dear Mr. John,
My last attempt was to furnish required details and updates to clarify all of your doubts. But, you took it in some other sense. It seems that you didn’t visit the CCHIT website for obtaining the answers of your simple queries.
Thus, I wish that my below attempt will certainly fulfill the purpose this time.
Please answer some of my questions:
1. Which is the ultimate body for granting EHR/EMR certifications?
2. Who is responsible for identifying EHR vendors?
3. Who declare guidelines for ‘Meaningful Use’?
4. Who implement the same guidelines into the EHR system?
5. Is there any other body available for the Government besides CCHIT for executing the above guidelines, duties and responsibilities?
The above article conveys a clear message to the readers and does not contain any kind of misinterpretations. Still, would request you to mail me your queries at ankitagaria@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Ankit Agaria
Biz Assist Services
http://www.bizassist.co.in
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