In the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 of EHR Incentive Programs, eligible hospitals qualify for incentive payments by electronically reporting antimicrobial use (AU) and antimicrobial resistance (AR) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). By doing so, hospitals and providers avoid downward payment adjustments.
Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) was presented in 2009 to advance quality and affordability of health care services by providing computable data. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration the goals of meaningful use are to:
- Improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care while reducing disparities
- Engage patients and families in their care
- Promote public and population health
- Improve care coordination
- Promote the privacy and security of patient information.
Along with the CDC and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), CMS is working to build up national antibiotic use resistance surveillance efforts as part of the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
President Obama also addressed the value of data.
“Data is critical,” says President Obama in an interview with WebMD about the national plan. “And we have some valuable data already. But we need to know more. We need to track antibiotic use and the spread of drug-resistant bacteria even more closely. Ideally, we’d be able to see in real-time where the cases of drug resistance are being reported, so we can take swift action. The same goes for rates of antibiotic use.”
Public comments on proposed rules are due by 5 p.m. on May 29, 2015. To comment, please visit regulations.gov.
