With Meaningful Use deadlines quickly approaching this year, it's our goal to get you all of the information and Meaningful Use terms you need in order to be ready to attest. So we've found a few acronyms that are important for you to know and understand to get you on your way to Meaningful Use attestation.

You have to start participating in The Meaningful Use Incentive Program this year if you want to avoid payment penalties in 2015. So if you haven't gotten started yet, you'll have some learning ahead of you. We'll run through the basics of four common Meaningful Use acronyms that you should know including EP, CDS, CPOE, and CCD.

Become a Master of MU by Understanding these Meaningful Use Terms

EP (Eligible Professional)

Eligible professionals are healthcare providers that can receive incentive payments for attesting to, and meeting, the requirements of Meaningful Use. As an OD, you'll attest to Meaningful Use as an eligible professional, not as an eyecare practice as a whole.

Eligible professionals include:

• Doctor of Medicine or Osteopathy
• Doctor of Oral Surgery or Dental Medicine
• Doctor of Podiatric Medicine
• Doctor of Optometry
• Chiropractor

CDS (Clinical Decision Support)

CDS is a variety of features and functionality within an EHR that analyzes and filters information to help you, your staff, and other health individuals with patient-specific information and recommendations in support of clinical decision making. It can help you determine and suggest proper diagnosis and treatment options for a specific patient. And, it will often flag possible issues with a patient or condition that you might have overlooked.

CDS also plays a role in Meaningful Use attestation. Here's an example of a core objective from Stage 2:

Core Objective - Use Clinical Decision Support
What it Requires - 1) Implement 5 CDS interventions related to 4 or more CQMs during patient care. 2) Enable the drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks.
Exclusions - There is no exclusion for the first part of the objective, and you can be excluded from the second measure if you write fewer than 100 medication orders during the reporting period.

CPOE (Computerized Provider Order Entry)

CPOE is a fancy term for using a computer to enter medication orders into a patient's medical record. It's also a requirement for attestation. Here's an example of the core objective regarding CPOE in Stage 2:

Core Objective - Computerized Order Entry
What it Requires - You must use CPOE to enter orders for at least 60% of your medication orders, 30% of your laboratory orders, and 30% of your radiology orders.
Exclusions - You are excluded if you write less than 100 medication, laboratory, or radiology orders during the reporting period.

CCD (Continuity of Care Document)

A CCD is a document that any certified EHR must be able to generate that allows you to communicate pieces of medical information either to another healthcare provider, or to the patient. It's essentially a packaged document that is formatted for all certified EHRs to read and communicate medical information including patient's medication allergies, lab results, and problems, in addition to patient header information.

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