Policy committee weighs delay for Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements

The federally chartered Health Information Technology Policy Committee moved closer Wednesday to recommending a delay on the start date of the next round of electronic health-record system meaningful-use requirements.

The committee's meaningful-use work group presented a revised set of Stage 2 performance targets that, if adopted, providers would have to meet to qualify for EHR incentive payments provided for under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Of significance was the discussion about when the Stage 2 requirements—more stringent than those for Stage 1—will go into effect.

The work group presented and sought feedback from committee members on three options for implementing Stage 2. They are:

Stick with the current plan: Stage 2 would take effect in 2013, and providers would have to meet Stage 2 requirements for a full year to be eligible for incentive payments. (For the first year of the program, providers seeking Stage 1 incentive payments have to demonstrate that they've met Stage 1 requirements for only 90 days.)

Maintain the current time line but permit a 90-day demonstration period. One important byproduct of the 90-day requirement is that it would give providers nine more months to reach Stage 2 compliance.

Push back the transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2 by one year.

Currently, Stage 2 for hospitals is set to begin Oct. 1, 2012. There have been multiple industry complaints, however, that the date is not feasible.

Many but not all policy committee members who commented on the options said they favored the third option in the interest of giving EHR vendors and providers enough time to adapt and adopt EHR systems to the new Stage 2 criteria.