What is Meaningful Use?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide incentive payments to eligible professionals (EPs) and hospitals who adopt, implement, upgrade, or demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. Find out more about EHR implementation and the available incentive programs, meaningful use, and the certification process of EHR technology below.
Overview of Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Programs 1, 2
Medicare EHR Incentive Program | Medicaid EHR Incentive Program | |
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Year 1 options | Must demonstrate meaningful use in year 1 | Adopt/Implement/Upgrade option in Year 1 |
Who is eligible? 3 | 5 types of EPs, subsection (d) hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) | 5 types of EPs, acute care hospitals, including CAHs, and children's hospitals |
Important dates |
Last year to begin participation is 2014 Last payment is in 2016 |
Last year to begin participation is 2016 Last payment is in 2021 |
Medicare payment adjustments | Begin in 2015 for EPs that are not meaningful users of EHR technology | None |
Meaningful use definition 4 | Definition of meaningful use for Medicare is standard | States can adopt their own definition (based on the Federal Medicare definition) |
Who will implement? | Federal government (will be an option nationally) | States, on a voluntary basis |
- 1 Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Program: Meaningful Use Stage 1 Requirements Overview, 2010 [PDF - 1.5 MB]
- 2 Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs: Comparison Chart [PDF - 274 KB]
- 3 Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs: Eligibility
- 4 Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs: Meaningful Use
Consolidated Frequently Asked Questions
In response to feedback from stakeholders, CMS and ONC have worked together to expand the original version of the grid below to include a number of resources all in one place.
These new grids include hyperlinks to:
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CMS and ONC FAQs that are relevant to each meaningful use objective and measure and EHR certification criterion listed in the grid;
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Each of the CMS meaningful use specification sheets developed for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals; and
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More information about the standards and implementation specifications adopted and referred to in each of the certification criteria.