To encourage this adoption and encourage “meaningful use” of the technology, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established certain requirements for hospitals and eligible professionals to meet in order to continue secure reimbursement funding from the federal government. In three stages over the next several years, health care providers will be required to demonstrate meaningful use of an EHR in different ways. On July 28, 2010, CMS released Meaningful Use (MU) the Stage 1 criteria that specified what providers should do to demonstrate meaningful use successfully. These criteria focus on standardizing electronic health information, using EHR systems to provide a higher level of care for patients, and implementing clinical
