Meaningful Use and Public Health

The County of Santa Cruz Public Health and Meaningful Use

Meaningful Use provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act were enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Under this Act, Eligible Hospitals (EHs), Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and Eligible Professionals (EPs) that provide clinical services to Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal, in California) patients and commence the transmission of electronic health data are eligible to receive Meaningful Use financial incentives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Visit the CMS website to learn more about Meaningful Use

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has created a Health Information Exchange (HIE) Gateway to assist eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals in meeting the requirements for Meaningful Use (MU) Public Health Objectives of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. The CDPH HIE Gateway will serve as a single point of entry for data submission to many state public health programs, although not all programs will begin using the CDPH HIE Gateway immediately. In future phases, the CDPH HIE Gateway will be expanded for registration of other CDPH electronic reporting systems.

Access the Gateway and begin the registration process, thereby declaring your intent to submit data to CDPH.

Visit the California Department of Public Health for Public Health program-specific information

The County of Santa Cruz coordinates health data reporting with the California Department of Public Health. Santa Cruz County is not capable of receiving data transmissions directly. See the information below on how to meet Stage 1 or 2 Meaningful Use requirements for electronic data transmissions of one or more of the following Public Health objectives: