Who Can Enter Orders for Meaningful Use? An Evolving Challenge for Practice Managers.

Meeting the required objectives of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs is a high priority for most medical practice managers and their employers and staff. Failure to meet even one of the objectives established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) results in the eligible professional receiving no incentive payment. A key element of the Incentive Program rules is the requirement that only "credentialed medical assistants" (in addition to "licensed healthcare professionals") are permitted to enter medication, laboratory, and radiology/diagnostic imaging orders into the computerized provider order entry system and have such entry count toward meeting the CMS Meaningful Use threshold. The CMS rules for Stages 1 and 2 of the Incentive Programs are final, and proposed rules for Stage 3 were issued by CMS March 20, 2015. This article discusses the order entry requirements of the proposed Stage 3 rule, as well as the order entry provisions for Stages 1 and 2.