WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its proposed rules for Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use program that provides incentive payments for electronic health records (EHRs). While the 301-page document can already be viewed here, the proposed rule won’t be officially published until Monday, March 30.

The rule gives more flexibility and simplifies requirements for providers by focusing on advanced use of EHRs and eliminating requirements that are no longer relevant, according to a statement from CMS. The comment period on the proposed rule will close on May 29, 2015.

Simply defined, Meaningful Use means that health care providers, including optometrists, need to show that they are using their EHRs to improve care in ways that can be measured.

The Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Care Record (EHR) Incentive Programs provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals as they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate Meaningful Use of certified EHR technology.

The requirements are being rolled out in stages broadly defined as Stage 1 requiring the electronic storing and sharing of patient data, Stage 2 achieving advanced clinical process through the interoperability of databases, and Stage 3 resulting in improved patient outcomes.

According to CMS, the proposed rule “would continue to encourage electronic submission of clinical quality measure (CQM) data for all providers where feasible in 2017, propose to require the electronic submission of CQM data where feasible in 2018, and establish requirements to transition the program to a single stage for Meaningful Use.”

In addition, the “Stage 3 proposed rule would also change the EHR reporting period so that all providers would report under a full calendar year timeline with a limited exception under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program for providers demonstrating Meaningful Use for the first time.”

According to the most recent statistics available from CMS, as of January 2015, there were 16,065 Medicare-eligible optometrists and 356 Medicaid-eligible optometrists registered in the EHR Incentive Program.