CMS Issues Final Rule for Stage 3 Meaningful Use Criteria; Delay to Stage 3 Urged at Senate Committee Hearing

​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the final rule to implement its stage 3 meaningful use objectives for its electronic health record (EHR) incentive program. Instead of a start date of January 1, 2017, for providers to begin reporting stage 3 criteria, as the agency proposed in March, the final rule gives healthcare providers the option to report in 2017. Required reporting of stage 3 criteria would start in January 2018. In an October 6, 2015, press release announcing the rule, the Department of Health and Human Services said that it heard from physicians and other providers "about the challenges they face making this technology work well . . . In recognition of these concerns, the regulations announced today make significant changes in current requirements." For example, several of the eight meaningful use objectives for stage 3 support interoperability.