new MU Requirements for Patient to view their health information online.

The new CMS meaningful use requirements (which providers and hospitals must meet in order to receive compensation for implementing an EHR) inclues a new requirement for both Stage 1 and 2 to require that patient's be given online access to their health information (page 32) but the 4 day time (page 94) delay makes it largely unusable by patients.

State 2 Meaningful Use Requirements

We propose for Stage 2 a new method for making patient information available electronically, which would enable patients to view online and download their health information and hospital admission information.

We discuss in the Stage 2 criteria section the proposed "view, download, and transmit" objectives for EPs and hospitals.

Starting in 2014, Certified EHR Technology will no longer be certified to the Stage 1 EP and hospital core objectives of providing patients with electronic copies of their health information and discharge instructions upon request, nor will it support the Stage 1 EP menu objective of providing patients with timely electronic access to their health information. 

Therefore starting in 2014, for Stage 1, we propose to replace these objectives with the new "view online, download and transmit" objectives. We discuss these objectives further in our proposed Stage 2 criteria.

Proposed EP Measures:

More than 50 percent of all unique patients seen by the EP (eligible professional) during the EHR reporting period are provided timely (within 4 business days after the information is available to the EP) online access to their health information subject to the EP's discretion to withhold certain information.