Are You Eligible? Who can be a Meaningful User?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus money, Obamabucks, or the reason Old Town Road has been torn up and repaved in the past two weeks, has authorized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide financial incentives to eligible professionals (EP's) and hospitals that demonstrate "meaningful use" of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.

In general, an eligible professional can demonstrate meaningful use of EHR in his or her practice if he

1. Uses a certified EHR technology.
2. Demonstrates electronic exchange of specific information.
3. Reports on specific clinical quality measures.

But are you eligible?  Probably.  Under the Medicare program, you are eligible if your practice is non-hospital based, and you are an

• MD or DO
• DDS
• Doctor of optometry
• Chiropractor
• Podiatrist

You may even find yourself eligible under guidelines for EP's to the Medicaid-based incentive, which includes non-hospital based physicians, dentists, certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and certain physician assistants who work out of Federally qualified centers and rural health centers that are run by physician assistants.  If you are eligible for both, you must select one program under which to receive your benefits, and you can only switch programs once during the 2012-2014 payment years.