The U.S. government introduced the Meaningful Use program as part of the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, to encourage health care providers to show "meaningful use" of a certified Electronic Health Record (EHR).

When did Meaningful Use Stage 1 begin?

The list of criteria and regulations was established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) in July 2010. Consisting of 25 total criteria, the list for meaningful use stage 1 is broken into 15 core requirements and 10 menu requirements.

Is meaningful use required by law?

In CMS' new rule, the agency noted that beginning with an EHR reporting period in 2019, all eligible hospitals under the Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs are required to use the 2015 Edition of CEHRT.