Meaningful use panel ponders rule changes

A Health & Human Services Department advisory panel Friday explored potential clarifications and tweaks of its proposed meaningful use rules, the set of requirements healthcare providers must meet in order to qualify for thousands of dollars in federal health IT incentive payments.

It its first session on Jan. 8 following the release of the proposal, the meaningful use workgroup of HHS's Health IT Policy Committee signaled it might revisit aspects of the plan, including the number of quality measures it requires and the effect on physicians trying to apply them. But the panel said it would concentrate on "philosophical" comments instead of specific changes. "Clearly, clinical quality reporting and quality measures tied to outcome improvement is one of those big topics," said Paul Tang, the workgroup co-chairman and chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

The panel will share its recommendations with the Health IT Policy Committee, which will then submit its comments on the proposed rule to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in March.