Beacon Program Director Clarifies 'Meaningful Use'Beacon Program Director Clarifies 'Meaningful Use'

When Aaron McKethan told potential applicants for awards under the Beacon Community Program that their proposals should demonstrate how health IT can "achieve Meaningful Use improvements in cost and quality in a three-year period and beyond," he could have been speaking to every health IT manager tasked with adopting modern health IT for a new age.

McKethan, program director for the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program, held a conference call on June 1 to brief more than 200 potential applicants on what they should include in their proposals as they prepare their applications for the last two Beacon Community awards, which will be announced in August.

McKethan, who spoke to information after the call, said those charged with adopting new technology for healthcare delivery organizations shouldn't just be thinking about implementing new IT systems, but should also focus on showing how those systems will improve healthcare delivery.

"The whole arc of Meaningful Use of health IT is about wiring the country so that there are electronic health records and there's robust health information exchange happening, but for what? To achieve specific quality and efficiency improvements in the health system," McKethan said.

He also said that the work at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is about creating a foundation for the country's health IT system to develop concrete performance improvements that most Americans understand and value.

"We know that health IT is one critical aspect of the health system change, but it requires more than just adopting technology, it requires using the technology to change how consumers, physicians, and other healthcare personnel interact in ways that lead to fewer complications, more safety, more efficient care, and less duplication," McKethan told information.

Earlier this month McKethan told potential applicants that, as they develop their proposals, they should share compelling stories at the local level that specify how health IT can play an important role in informing specific care delivery interventions and innovations. Once information is gathered through performance measures and feedback systems, the data can influence reforms and demonstrate how providers and meaningful users of health IT "are able to achieve very specific improvements in quality, population health, and efficiency during the three-year Beacon Program," McKethan said. Meaningful use describes a set of requirements, which are still being developed, that healthcare delivery organizations must meet in order to be deemed meaningful users of technology and, in turn, qualify for reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services incentives program.

McKethan told information that although there has not been a final ruling on the Meaningful Use requirements, there should be broad agreement that health IT managers must demonstrate how health IT will improve performance and quality.

"What is important to note is that the announcement of the Beacon program -- and the proposals to it -- all preceded the Meaningful Use proposed rule," McKethan said. "The purpose of the Beacon program is to focus more broadly on the future, not just to demonstrate that health IT can be useful, but to show how, to understand how, to learn how," McKethan added.

In December, the Beacon Community Program was established with funds from the ONC operating under a mandate from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which authorizes funding to strengthen the country's health information infrastructure.

The program provides funding to communities to build their health IT infrastructure and exchange capabilities. These communities are intended to demonstrate the vision of a future where hospitals, clinicians, and patients are meaningful users of health IT, and together the community achieves measurable improvements in healthcare quality, safety, efficiency, and population health.

The program provides funding to communities at the cutting edge of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange to push them to a new level of sustainable healthcare quality and efficiency. The program also will generate lessons learned on how other communities can achieve similar goals enabled by health IT.

"The position of the Beacon Program within the broader health IT portfolio here at ONC is to demonstrate a future where, in a few years, much of the rest of the country... will be able to meet the same level of criteria that you are all going to demonstrate in your proposals," McKethan said during the conference call with potential applicants.

To date ONC has made 15 Beacon Community awards totaling $220 million to qualified nonprofit organizations or government entities. An additional $30 million is currently available for two awards. The application deadline is June 28 and the winners will be announced in August.