Meaningful Use Stage 2 is coming…or is it?

While it’s true Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 requirements are scheduled to take effect in 2014, they may not apply to you as a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program participant. Here’s why…

If by 2014 you will be in the third year of MU attestation, you are indeed staring down the barrel of Stage 2 requirements. Even then, you will be required to do so only for a 90-day reporting period. This gives you until Oct. 3, 2014 to begin reporting. If you are ready by January 1, you may certainly start, the benefit being you will be first in line for incentive payments.



The North Texas Regional Extension Center is not encouraging procrastination. We ask you to plan for Stage 2. We expect the cogs in the system (i.e., CMS, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, EHR vendors, Health Information Exchange’s, etc.) to go through a period of working out the “kinks.” If Stage 1 taught us anything, we expect Stage 2 to exhibit a learning curve.

However, if you are attesting in 2013 or 2014 for the first time, then Stage 2 requirements won’t apply to you at all this upcoming year. That’s because every MU participant has two years of participation under Stage 1, regardless of when you begin. You will not need to upgrade your Certified EHR to the 2014 version because you won’t need that additional functionality until 2016, postponing a big upgrade (and expenditure) until later. It could also give EHR “version 2.xx” some time to work out its bugs – always a good thing.

Next time we’ll talk about what every MU participant should do to prepare for Stage 2. For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at pcasey@ntrec.org.