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Electronic Health Record (EHR) Meaningful Use Requirements

In North Carolina, the state Division of Public Health oversees four objectives of the public health meaningful use component of the state-level Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) initiative:

  1. Electronic submission of Reportable Laboratory Results (for hospitals only)
  2. Electronic submission of Syndromic Surveillance Data (for hospitals only)
  3. Electronic submission of Immunization Registry Data (for eligible professionals and hospitals)
  4. Electronic submission of Cancer Registry Data

Under HITECH, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments External link when they adopt certified electronic health records (EHR) technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. Providers must meet required "meaningful use" objectives to qualify for the bonus payments.

Please note:

  • NCDPH is capable of accepting Electronic Laboratory Reports from eligible hospitals. NCDPH is not requesting and will not receive Electronic Laboratory Reports from eligible professionals. To register your intent to submit ELR to NCDPH, please complete the ELR Registration Survey (for eligible hospitals only).

  • NCDPH is capable of accepting electronic Syndromic Surveillance from eligible hospitals. NCDPH is currently evaluating the possibility of accepting Syndromic Surveillance data from eligible professionals; therefore, eligible professionals are not required to meet the Syndromic Surveillance objective for Stage 1 or Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. To register your intent to submit syndromic surveillance data to NCDPH, please complete the Syndromic Surveillance Survey (for eligible hospitals only).

  • At this time, the N.C. Immunization Registry is not accepting electronic submission of immunization information, but is in the process of developing the capability for a bi-directional interface with EHRs.

  • NCDPH is capable of accepting electronic cancer reports from the Eligible Professionals (EPs). To register your intent to submit cancer data to NCDPH, please complete the Registration form.

Stage 2 of Meaningful Use

Stage 2 MU goes into effect on October 1, 2013 for eligible hospitals (EHs) and January 1, 2014 for eligible professionals (EPs). As a reminder, to allow providers time to upgrade their EHRs to the 2014 EHR certification standards, CMS has granted a one-time, 90-day reporting period (for EPs) or fiscal quarter (for EHs) for ALL providers participating in the EHR Incentive Programs in program year 2014, regardless of a provider’s participation year.

To meet Stage 2 MU public health reporting requirements, providers must declare their intent to submit this information electronically to the State Public Health Agency within the first 60 days of their chosen MU reporting period. Please click on the objective-specific page for more information regarding how to register for that particular objective. For more information, please contact the N.C. DPH Meaningful Use Help Desk by email (ncdphmu@dhhs.nc.gov), or for questions related specifically to immunization reporting contact ncirdataexchange@dhhs.nc.gov.

Meaningful Use Reporting

Per N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) policy, the North Carolina Health Information Exchange (NC HIE) is the state-designated entity for health information exchange, the sole means to electronically submit clinical quality measures, and the preferred method to electronically report public health information required to meet certain Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) objectives.

With support from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, N.C. Medicaid will fully subsidize the NC HIE’s side of the cost of connecting those practices where at least one affiliated provider is a paid participant of the N.C. Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program or a member of Community Care of North Carolina, and who agree to become participants on the NC HIE. To learn more, please visit www.communitycarenc.org/MeaningfulUse or contact Jayson Caracciolo by phone (919-926-3901) or email (jcaracciolo@n3cn.org).

Contacts

For further information regarding Meaningful Use Requirements in North Carolina, please send an email to the North Carolina Division of Public Health at NCDPHMU@dhhs.nc.gov.

For Additional Information