Previously we covered important Meaningful Use Terms you need to know.  But, as it seems to be with any topic, there are several acronyms you need to know to understand Meaningful Use and the requirements as well.  To help you get started, here are our top 8:

ONC - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

The ONC is the department within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is in charge of Meaningful Use and promoting EHR use. 

NIST - National Institute for Standards and Technology

NIST is the agency within the U.S. Commerce Department that is in charge of creating the Meaningful Use test methods that EHRs use to certify on.  The agency creates standards for several other areas as well, including the Security Controls and ID Proofing needed for Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS).

HITECH Act - Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act

The HITECH act was signed into law in 2009 and is the act stipulating incentive payments be paid for Meaningful Use to eligible providers.

EP - Eligible Provider

EPs are healthcare providers that are eligible to attest to Meaningful Use.  The Medicare and Medicaid programs have different types of EPs:

Eligible Medicare EPs include:

• Doctors of Medicine or Osteopathy
• Doctors of Dental Surgery or Dental Medicine
• Doctors of Podiatric Medicine
• Doctors of Optometry
• Chiropractors

Eligible Medicaid EPs include:

• Physicians
• Nurse Practitioners
• Certified Nurse - Midwife
• Dentists
• Physicians Assistants who practice in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or Rural Health Center (RHC) that is led by a Physician Assistant

CDS - Clinical Decision Support

CDS can be a number of different tools in an EHR that offer healthcare providers patient-specific information to aid in their clinical decisions and is one of the requirements for attesting to Meaningful Use.  A good example of CDS is showing a drug-drug or drug-allergy alert when a provider selects a drug that could have an interaction for the patient.

CPOE - Computerized Physician Order Entry

CPOE is the process of electronically entering medical orders, instead of on paper charts, and is also a requirement for attesting to Meaningful Use.  A prime example is electronically entering a prescription, instead of writing it out by hand on a prescription pad. 

HIE - Health Information Exchange

HIE is the electronic exchange of health information.  It allows health care providers and patients to access and share a patient’s health records electronically.  One of the main goals of Meaningful Use Stage 2 is to increase HIE between providers in order to increase care coordination and patient outcomes.

C-CDA – Consolidated-Clinical Document Architecture

The C-CDA format is a specific format standard that allows EHRs to exchange patient data with each other.