The final rule for the meaningful use of electronic health records has brought both relief and anxiety to the hospital field. The rule includes some important improvements over the proposed rule, but the aggressive timeline could place incentive payments out of reach for many hospitals. Moreover, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not outline the requirements for meeting Stage 2 and Stage 3, making long-term planning difficult. Hospitals can first qualify as meaningful users in FY 2013 and still receive the full four years of incentive payments. Hospitals that fail to achieve meaningful use by FY 2015 will be penalized in the form of Medicare market-basket reductions.
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