Meaningful Use Measures: Electronic Copy of Health Information – Meaningful Use Monday

Meaningful Use Core Measure: More than 50% of all patients who request an electronic copy of their health information are provided it within 3 business days.

Exclusion: Any EP who receives no requests for this information in electronic format.

 This measure is distinguished from  the clinical summary measure, (discussed in the previous Meaningful Use Monday post), in two major ways:

1)      “Electronic copy of health information” covers all health information that the provider has regarding the patient, whereas the “clinical summary” is a snapshot of a particular visit.

2)      This measure is driven by requests made by patients or their agents—electronic access must be provided in response to at least 50% of the specific requests received by a provider. By contrast, clinical summaries have to be provided for 50% of office visits, regardless of whether or not the patient asked to receive the information. 

The measure is limited to the information that is contained electronically in the EHR, and it can be delivered in any electronic format, including patient portal, CD, USB fob, etc. 

An interesting note about the future of this measure: The Meaningful Use Workgroup has recommended to the HIT Policy Committee that this measure be dropped in Stage 2 because it is incorporated into other objectives. There is already a menu measure in Stage 1 that requires providing “timely electronic access to health information.”

Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money. Check out Lynn’s previous Meaningful Use Monday posts.

About the author

Lynn Scheps

Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money.

1 Comment

  • … viewable on any computer with no tools other than a web browser …

    None of this gawd-awful Windows-only stuff with 200 files in some incomprehensible directory structure.

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