The Federal Register will publish proposed regulations for the second stage of electronic health record meaningful-use guidelines on Thursday, according to the national coordinator for health IT, Dr. Farzad Mostashari. There had been speculation that the rules might have been released Tuesday or Wednesday.
Mostashari told an audience at an industry conference in Las Vegas that the proposed regulations were sent today to the Office of the Federal Register, according to ModernHealthcare.com. System interoperability will be central to the new regulations, he said during an education session at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, ModernHealthcare reported.
"We have done whatever we can to increase the flexibility and decrease the burden of these regulations," Mostashari said, according to the report.
A final rule is expected this summer.
John Pulley
John Pulley has written the Health IT Update blog since May 2011. Prior to becoming a regular contributor to Nextgov, he covered technology for Federal Computer Week and Government Health IT magazines. He has written about government for Federal Times and Air Force Times, as well. Pulley has worked in journalism for more than 20 years. He began his career covering local government for regional newspapers. In addition, he served as a writer and senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education for seven years. In 2006, he founded The Pulley Group, an editorial services agency.
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