Certified EHR Technology - The term “Certified EHR Technology” means a qualified electronic health record that is certified pursuant to Section 3001(c) (5) as meeting standards adopted under Section 3004 that are applicable to the type of record involved (as determined by the Secretary of HHS, such as an ambulatory electronic health record for office-based physicians or an inpatient hospital electronic health record for hospitals).

Qualified Electronic Health Record - The term “Qualified Electronic Health Record” means an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that:

• includes patient demographic and clinical health information, such as medical history and problem lists; and
• has the capacity to:
  • Provide clinical decision support;
  • Support physician order entry;
  • Capture and query information relevant to health care quality; and
  • Exchange electronic health information with and integrate such information from other sources.

Eligible Professional – To be a recognized eligible professional within ARRA:

• A provider must exhibit “meaningful use” of a “Certified EHR Technology,” including ePrescribing.
• The Certified EHR Technology must meet health information exchange (HIE) standards.
• The Certified EHR Technology must report clinical quality measures.

Meaningful Use - Termed the “north star” to guide key policy objectives, advanced care processes needed to achieve them, and the specific use of IT to enable the desired outcomes and ability to monitor objective, the initial definition of “Meaningful Use” was released by the HIT Policy Committee on June 16, 2009. A revised definition was released on July 16, 2009, and includes measures submitted by the HIT Standards Committee Quality Workgroup for national priorities identified by the National Quality Forum (NQF), to include patient engagement, reduction in disparities, improved patient safety, increased efficiency, coordination of care, and improved population health. A revised definition was approved on July 16, 2009, and includes measures beginning in 2011 and additional measures for 2013 and 2015. The initial definition will be submitted to the Secretary of HHS for consideration and approval. For Eligible Professionals and/or out-patient care, there are 28 stated objectives and 23 measures required to meet the definition of meaningful use by 2011, when Medicare and Medicaid incentives are scheduled to begin. There are an additional 18 objectives and 16 measures to achieve meaningful use by 2013; and, 13 objectives and 10 measures by 2015.

ePrescribing – In accordance with CMS proposed standards on November 16, 2007 for the Medicare Part D program (72 Fed Register 64900), any prescriber who electronically transmits Rx data related to a Part D beneficiary will be required to:

• adopt the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs SCRIPT standard, Implementation Guide, Version 8, Release 1 (NCPDP SCRIPT 8.1) for Part D e-prescribing
• adopt an eRx standard to the transmission of medication history information
• adopt an eRx standard for the transmission of formulary and benefit information
• adopt the NPI as the standard identifier for eRx transaction