Dear PACS Insider,
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Thursday released its final stage 2 meaningful use rule, which formally added support for viewing medical images as a menu item in the U.S. government's healthcare IT stimulus program.
A number of significant imaging-related changes were made from the proposed rule. Notably, CMS modified its measure that more than 40% of all scans and tests ordered by eligible providers need to be accessible through certified electronic records to reflect a new threshold of more than 10%.
Based on feedback on the proposed rule, images are also no longer included in the list of required elements for a stage 2 objective to provide patients with the ability to view online, download, and transmit their health information within four business days of the information being available to the eligible providers. Commenters had suggested that images should not be included in the list, citing specific difficulties in image viewing online and concerns about file size, CMS said.
For the details and other changes included in the final stage 2 rule, click here.
In other news in the PACS Digital Community, the topic of image exchange is the subject of this newsletter's Insider Exclusive, which provides coverage of a patient-controlled image-sharing framework developed by researchers from Wake Forest.
Using a hybrid design that combines both patient- and organization-facilitated image sharing enables a model that protects patient privacy and improves physician workflow, according to the Wake Forest team. Find out more and access the article before the rest of our AuntMinnie.com members by clicking here.
Also, learn how the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has achieved significant reductions in PACS downtime via a workflow continuity model.
Do you have a topic you'd like to see covered, or are you interested in submitting an article? Please feel free to drop me a line.
