By: Emily Mullin

As of Dec. 31, 2011, 61 percent of hospitals and 33 percent of eligible healthcare providers had registered for the electronic health records incentive program through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
 

While a large number of hospitals and providers have signed up for the program, a recent study released by the Computer Services Corporation (CSC) shows that there are still significant barriers for organizations and providers to meet Stage 2 meaningful use requirements.
 

CMS was expected to release initial requirements for meeting Stage 2 meaningful use in December 2011, but that deadline has been postponed, and the final rule is due to be released in July 2012. 
 

“Stage 1 accepts partial implementation of many required capabilities and sets a fairly low bar on how much use qualifies as meaningful use,” the CSC study says. 
 

CMS data show that most hospitals and providers that attested to meeting Stage 1 of meaningful use standards in 2011 exceeded the minimum thresholds for the requirements they met.
 

Still, Stage 2 could prove to be more difficult. For Stage 1 meaningful use, providers must only demonstrate three months of operational use of capabilities, whereas for Stage 2, providers will need to show a full year of operational use. 
 

A proposed new requirement for hospitals in Stage 2 is to have inpatient electronic medication administration. While 86 percent of survey respondents say they are prepared to meet that requirement, other new guidelines might not be as easy to implement. For example, 25 percent of survey respondents said they were prepared to offer electronic physician notes and only 12 percent said they were ready to have patients view and download their health information. Another 24 percent said they are prepared to transmit summary-of-care records at transitions of care.