Short answer: “Meaningful Use” was the name commonly used for federal Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs launched under the HITECH Act. In 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) renamed and substantially revised these programs as Promoting Interoperability, shifting emphasis toward secure information exchange and patient access. The programs did not all continue in the same form: the clinician and hospital tracks now differ, and the Medicaid program has ended.
This article describes the U.S. federal program landscape. Participation, eligibility, measures, and deadlines depend on provider type and reporting year. Always confirm current requirements with CMS, your state Medicaid agency, or a qualified compliance advisor.
What did Meaningful Use mean?
The EHR Incentive Programs encouraged eligible clinicians, hospitals, and critical access hospitals to adopt, implement, upgrade, and demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT). In practice, the program linked certified technology to objectives such as electronic prescribing, patient access to health information, quality reporting, security risk analysis, and exchange of care information. Exact measures changed over time and differed across participant groups and years.
The policy goal was broader than “buy an EHR.” The program sought to use certified technology in ways intended to support care quality, safety, patient involvement, and information exchange. Meeting a program measure, however, is not by itself proof that a particular system or workflow improves outcomes.
What changed—and when?
In 2018, CMS renamed the EHR Incentive Programs as Promoting Interoperability Programs and revised requirements to place greater emphasis on interoperability and patient access. For eligible clinicians, the former Medicare EHR Incentive Program was sunset under MACRA and related requirements moved into the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), including its Promoting Interoperability performance category for applicable clinicians. The Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals continues. The Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program ended on December 31, 2021.
So “Meaningful Use is now Advancing Care Information” is an outdated summary. Advancing Care Information was an earlier MIPS category name; the clinician category is now called Promoting Interoperability. Do not rely on old stage-based checklists or 2017 measure summaries as current instructions.
What does this mean for clinicians and healthcare organizations?
- Identify the correct track. A clinician participating in MIPS, a Medicare-participating hospital, a critical access hospital, and an organization considering a historical state Medicaid attestation are not interchangeable cases.
- Check eligibility and exclusions. Reporting obligations and available exceptions depend on participant type, status, and the specific program year.
- Use current-year specifications. Measures, reporting periods, submission methods, certified technology requirements, and scoring can change. Use CMS’s official requirements for the applicable year rather than a vendor blog or old “stages” article.
- Coordinate compliance and operations. Confirm who owns measure data, security documentation, attestations, and submission; preserve evidence and review completion before deadlines.
- Choose technology for workflow fit, not a label. Certification and program alignment do not guarantee that a product meets every practice need. Assess usability, interoperability, support, privacy, and the burden of maintaining accurate data.
Organizations evaluating an EHR should also understand how EMRs have changed healthcare, assess why interoperability matters, and consider how an EMR affects patient care and documentation.
