Course Objectives for Assignment #3:
Group Project: Meaningful Use Justification.
Your Instructor will assign you to a group of three or four students during week 2 of the course. The groups will organize themselves and work together to identify the relevant agencies (at least two or three) that will impact meaningful use of electronic records and quality in hospitals. The group will research and list the key regulations concerned with meaningful use compliance and reimbursement. One power point presentation will be submitted by each group. Please select one group member to submit the assignment on behalf of the team. It is expected that this assignment can be completed in 5–7 slides (this includes the cover slide and reference slide).
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The CDC defined Meaningful Use
as the utilization of certified
EHRs. Utilizing technology in a
meaningful way (2020).
As a result, it guarantees that the
certified EHR technology links in
a way that allows for the electronic
sharing of health data to raise the
standard of care.
The overall objective of the
Meaningful Use program is to
encourage the widespread use of
EHRs in order to build a
foundation that will ultimately
enhance the effectiveness, safety,
and efficiency of patient care in
the United States (Athena Health,
n.d.).
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is one of the
organizations that will have an impact on the meaningful use of electronic
health records and hospital quality.
AHRQ is a federal organization in the United States tasked with funding
research to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of healthcare
for all Americans (Slight et al., 2015).
According to federal privacy laws and regulations, the agency
disseminates privacy notices that describe its information security and
privacy program (Slight et al., 2015).
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is another
organization that works to improve and modernize the American
healthcare system.
According to Yanamadala et al. (2016), the CMS is the federal
organization in the United States that collaborates with state governments
to oversee the Medicare program, as well as Medicaid and the Children’s
Health Insurance Program.
The meaningful use incentive program for electronic health records is one
program that CMS specifically implements (Slight et al., 2015).
Furthermore, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology (ONC) is the organization that collaborates with
CMS to certify health IT systems and update HIPAA privacy and security
requirements.
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The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 is
one of the main regulations.
A quality payment program called MACRA features payment tiers
specifically for clinicians.
The innovative Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) has
replaced the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, more commonly known as
meaningful use, under MACRA (Johns et al., 2019).
Because physicians and healthcare organizations are paid according to
how well they perform on surveys that gauge patient happiness and
healthcare quality, the system is also known as value-based reimbursement
(Johns et al., 2019).
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The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Act
(HITECH) of 2009 is an additional regulation.
The Act was established, in accordance with the cited source, to encourage
the implementation of electronic health records and related technology in
the American healthcare system (Lim et al., 2018).
The ONC was required by the HITECH Act to establish and oversee
standards for stimulus programs.
The Act also authorized funds for facilities that teach the personnel
required to support hospitals’ new health IT infrastructure (Johns et al.,
2019).
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Slight, S. P., Berner, E. S., Galanter, W., Huff, S., Lambert, B. L., Lannon, C., … & Payne, T. H. (2015).
Meaningful use of electronic health records: experiences from the field and future opportunities. JMIR medical
informatics, 3(3), e30.
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Yanamadala, S., Morrison, D., Curtin, C., McDonald, K., & Hernandez-Boussard, T. (2016). Electronic health
records and quality of care: An observational study modeling impact on mortality, readmissions, and
complications. Medicine, 95(19).
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Jones, R. T., Helm, B., Parris, D., Grubbs, S. S., Choy, H., & Kapetanovic, K. (2019). The Medicare Access and
CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) Made Simple for Medical and Radiation Oncologists: A Narrative
Review. JAMA oncology, 5(5), 723-727.
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Lim, M. C., Boland, M. V., McCannel, C. A., Saini, A., Chiang, M. F., Epley, K. D., & Lum, F. (2018). Adoption
of electronic health records and perceptions of financial and clinical outcomes among ophthalmologists in the United
States. JAMA ophthalmology, 136(2), 164-170.