Meaningful Use Stage 3 conversations already are in full swing since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' announcement of the proposed rule last month. For instance, many in the provider industry have expressed apprehension about some of the objectives and measures in the rule, such as those pertaining to increased patient engagement.
To that end, Stage 3, as well as the program overall, will be a hot topic of conversation at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference in Chicago.
Case in point, on Monday, April 13 at 1 p.m., Elizabeth Myers, policy and outreach lead for the division of health information technology at CMS, and Robert Anthony, deputy director of the Quality Measurement and Health Assessment Group at CMS, will talk in depth about the requirements in the newly proposed rule.
Later that same day, Patty Guinn, director of clinical informatics at Cornerstone Advisor Group, and Cathy Borst, CIO at National Surgical Healthcare, will share their advice for preparing for and survival of a Meaningful Use audit, which began in 2012. Some providers are failing them because of documentation errors, failure to meet objectives and other reasons. What's more, appealing a negative determination has proven to be difficult, in large part because CMS has provided few guidelines regarding appeals.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, April 14 at 1 p.m., Anatachai Panjamapirom, a senior consultant with the Advisory Board Company, and Karen Wilding, a senior manager at the University of Maryland Medical System, will discuss risks of provider onboarding for Meaningful Use, and will offer recommendations for operational planning.
And on Thursday, April 16 at 12 p.m., Eric Chetwynd, of Curaspan Health Group, and Paul Fisher, director of nursing at Delaire Nursing Home in Linden, New Jersey, will talk about best practices for meeting Meaningful Use Stage 2's transition of care core objective.