It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
Karen Perry
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget received the proposed rule for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program, Politico's "Morning eHealth" reports.
In addition, OMB received a proposed rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that would adjust the EHR certification program to "make it more broadly applicable to other types of health IT health care settings" (Gold, "Morning eHealth," Politico, 1/5).
OMB review is one of the last steps before rules are published in the Federal Register (iHealthBeat, 9/16/13).
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
In March 2014, the Health IT Policy Committee voted to approve recommendations from its meaningful use workgroup for new objectives for Stage 3 of the meaningful use program (iHealthBeat, 3/11/14). The Policy Committee in its recommendations aimed to tighten the focus of Stage 3, which begins in 2017, and relieve some of the burden on stakeholders (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 1/6).
The approved recommendations were sent to CMS to develop a proposed rule (iHealthBeat, 3/11/14).
In the submission to OMB, HHS states that the proposed rule for Stage 3 focuses on improving health outcomes and furthering interoperability. The proposed rule also explains the criteria eligible professionals and eligible hospitals must meet to demonstrate meaningful use under the program.
In addition, HHS said that Stage 3 proposed rule includes changes to the meaningful use program's:
For example, it would provide a single definition of meaningful use.
HHS said it will work with CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to "ensure that the Stage 3 meaningful use definition coordinates with the standards and certification requirements being proposed and that there is sufficient time to upgrade and implement these changes."
Both proposed rules will be posted in the Federal Register upon completion of OMB's review (Health Data Management, 1/6). ONC expects the proposals to be approved by OMB sometime this winter ("Morning eHealth," Politico, 1/5).
It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
I just want to tell you that I value people relations more than money. I remember how you were friendly and helpful not going against policies and contractual obligations at the same time, not using your power to make us feel stupid and small. It was a very rare and big experience for me. Really. I will always remember this.
The Usability People are all individuals that you can become friends with very easily. They have a lot of different interests and are a pleasure to work with. I was writing a PRD/MRD for a billing solution and worked with The Usability People in defining the user interface. They are receptive to ideas and are able to mold the user interface from an end-user's perspective. I really liked the idea of putting end-user photograph & short biography around the office to help understand the users