Where’s Meaningful Use?: All About Promoting Interoperability

If you’ve run a practice for the last decade, you’ve doubtlessly used an electronic health record (EHR) on a daily basis. You probably leverage it so much you couldn’t imagine practicing medicine without it.

But things haven’t always been that way. Game-changing legislation enacted since the beginning of the century has catapulted technology adoption from the margins of healthcare to the core of the industry.

As AI and other digital tools become more integrated into healthcare, following national standards is becoming even more high-stakes. While many providers focus on compliance to avoid penalties, it’s easy to overlook how these benchmarks also improve care delivery and boost efficiency. One of these standards is the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program, formerly known as Meaningful Use.

Established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Promoting Interoperability Program promotes the use of certified EHR technology to support improved patient care, enhance coordination, and facilitate better access to health data. For providers and healthcare organizations, successfully meeting these objectives means adopting practical tools that make compliance easier while delivering tangible value to both staff and patients.

What is Meaningful Use (Promoting Interoperability), How Did It Change, and Why Does It Matter?

Launched in 2009 under the HITECH Act, Meaningful Use was designed to encourage healthcare providers to adopt certified EHRs. It has since changed into the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program. This transition was part of a bigger shift from the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which merged several quality programs into the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Under MIPS, Promoting Interoperability became one of four performance categories that affect Medicare Part B reimbursement.

Even though the name has changed, the goals of Meaningful Use remain foundational to modern healthcare IT.

Meaningful Use matters because it:

• Helps close care gaps and allows for timely access to patient data.
• Engages patients with digital access to their records.
• Supports smarter decisions by using EHR tools for real-time insights and clinical guidance.
• Drives quality improvement by facilitating reporting for performance tracking and public health goals.
• Protects data by prioritizing privacy and security to meet HIPAA and compliance standards.

The Goals of Meaningful Use

The Meaningful Use program was designed to bring real improvements to healthcare delivery across the board. The goals of the initiative focused on turning digital records into a meaningful part of everyday clinical practice.

Here’s what the program aimed to achieve:

• Improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care across the healthcare system.
• Support better coordination of care between providers, specialists, and facilities.
• Engage patients more directly by giving them access to their health information.
• Improve population health by enabling data-driven decision making.
• Ensure privacy and security of patient health records in a digital environment.

Ultimately, the goal of Meaningful Use was to make health IT meaningful to providers, patients, and the entire healthcare system. When used effectively, certified EHR technology can help practices meet these goals while enhancing daily operations and long-term outcomes.

Criteria for Meaningful Use: Incentives and Penalties

When the Meaningful Use program launched in 2009, it offered financial incentives to eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals that adopted certified EHR systems and demonstrated “meaningful use” of them.

Beginning in 2015, the program shifted from offering incentives to imposing penalties. Providers who failed to meet annual criteria for Meaningful Use set by CMS began to see reductions in their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. These requirements that influence reimbursement rates live on under the Promoting Interoperability performance category within the MIPS program.

Penalties for Non-Compliance:

• Providers who fail to meet Promoting Interoperability performance standards under MIPS may receive negative payment adjustments to their Medicare Part B reimbursements (depending on the year and composite score)
• Non-compliance can significantly reduce practice revenue and disqualify providers from performance-based bonuses under value-based care models.
• These penalties apply even if providers are not actively seeking incentives. They must still report annually to avoid reductions.

How to Meet Meaningful Use (PI) Requirements

To meet the requirements of Meaningful Use, now PI, and remain in good standing with CMS, providers must follow specific performance criteria.

These standards can be broken down into three steps that build on one another:

Establish a Strong Digital Foundation

To meet the foundational goals of Promoting Interoperability, establish systems that are equipped to capture and manage data in a secure, standardized way. Make sure to:

• Implement an ONC-certified EHR system that allows you to capture and store structured patient data.
• Track clinical conditions through built-in tools that support accurate diagnosis and monitoring.
• Activate portals and secure messaging for patients.
• Initiate basic reporting for Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) and public health submissions such as immunization records and syndromic surveillance.

Strengthen Interoperability and Care Coordination

Once a digital foundation is in place, focus on making your data work across care settings. This involves improving clinical workflows and communication among other providers. Here’s what you can do to amplify care collaboration:

• Enable bi-directional health information exchange (HIE). Remember, you need patient authorization for HIPAA compliance.
• Integrate electronic prescribing (eRx) and lab results. It is also important that your EHR connects to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) database of your state.
• Provide patients with the ability to view, download, and send their own health data. Your EHR must have an integrated patient portal that has this capability.
• Support transition of care by sending and receiving patient summaries and visit notes.

This step is critical for improving continuity of care, reducing errors, and enabling collaborative decision-making.

Focus on Outcomes and Patient-Centered Care

Use technology not just to document care, but to optimize outcomes and empower patients. Consider:

• Using the clinical decision support tools built into your EHR. They help you align care with evidence-based guidelines and national health priorities.
• Expanding patient engagement tools, such as digital care plans, education materials, and goal tracking features that promote self-management.
• Establishing full connectivity, so patient records are accessible across the care continuum. This helps inform decisions no matter where patients receive care.

These actions align with value-based care models and demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs to improve population health and patient satisfaction.

Simplify compliance and connect every part of your workflow with WRS Health’s fully integrated EHR platform built for Promoting Interoperability success..

Promoting Interoperability Compliance Checklist 2025

To stay compliant and maximize reimbursement, practices need a fully integrated system that covers all PI requirements. This means choosing a comprehensive EHR vendor equipped with robust connectivity features like HIE, e-prescribing, bi-directional lab and state registry integrations, and a secure patient portal.

Use this checklist to ensure your practice has everything it needs to meet Promoting Interoperability standards:

Making Compliance Work for Your Practice and Your Patients

While you have to meet CMS requirements to avoid penalties, the real value lies in how these standards elevate care delivery. It facilitates more informed clinical decisions, stronger patient engagement, and better coordination at every level of patient care. When compliance is met, care delivery improves, outcomes rise, and both your practice and your patients thrive—now and in the long term.

To meet these goals, providers need more than just a certified EHR. They need a system that supports them from beginning to end, with tools that make compliance simpler and care delivery smarter. Choosing the right EHR partner is key to ensuring your practice stays on track, remains competitive, and ultimately provides the best possible care for every patient.