The Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program proposed rule that would establish the requirements for Stage 2 is currently under review at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Although the text of the proposed rule is not currently available, the announcement that the proposed rule is at the OMB for review generally means that such rule will be published shortly thereafter.

As CMS commented in the 2010 final rule, “Our goals for the Stage 2 meaningful use criteria, consistent with other provisions of Medicare and Medicaid law, expand upon the Stage 1 criteria to encourage the use of health IT for continuous quality improvement at the point of care and the exchange of information in the most structured format possible, such as the electronic transmission of orders entered using computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and the electronic transmission of diagnostic test results (such as blood tests, microbiology, urinalysis, pathology tests, radiology, cardiac imaging, nuclear medicine tests, pulmonary function tests, genetic tests, genomic tests and other such data needed to diagnose and treat disease).” 75 Fed. Reg. 44314, 44321 (July 28, 2010).

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