At a news conference on Tuesday, where speakers included HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, new CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal, and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin it was announced that the $27.3 BILLION will now be a bit easier to gain access to for both providers as well as hospitals nationwide.

Thanks to some revisions, the “Meaningful Use Regulations” that providers must follow include 20 criteria under a formula that includes 15 mandatory quality measures and 5 others that can be choosen from a “menu” of 10. This change lightens up the otherwise “all or nothing” criteria that was previously set forth.

A recent report, (Ready or Not: On the road to the meaningful use of EHRs and health IT,) indicated 80% of hospital CIOs are concerned or very concerned about meeting and adhering to the recently released meaningful use criteria.

Meaningful use standards must be met to trigger release of incentive funds provided by the government to spur adoption of electronic records. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake, but about half of the CIOs surveyed indicated that their hospital would not be ready to apply by 2011, when the incentive funds will become available. The government will raise the bar for meeting the standards in 2013 and again in 2015.

Our question to you – If 80% of hospital CIOs are concerned about not meeting this criteria, how well are you prepared?

With a bit of commitment, a willingness to adapt to new technologies, and assistance from an experienced HealthIT consulting firm the adoption of a new EMR system can not only increase the productivity of a practice but also add valuable reimbursements for years to come.