CHIME rejects MU metadata standards

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has rejected the idea that metadata standards be included in the next notice of proposed rulemaking to support Meaningful Use Stage 2, saying more work needs to be done to verify these standards before they are implemented and used across the healthcare provider community. CHIME's comments were delivered in a September 21 letter to Department of Health and Human Services' secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in which the organization chided HHS over plans to include metadata standards in Meaningful Use Stage 2, and expressed doubt that healthcare stakeholders are fully onboard with the decision to use the HL7 CDA R2 header to support metadata standards. "We do not believe enough progress has been made, or evidence gathered, to support the technologies and strategies needed to include metadata standards as part of Meaningful Use Stage 2," wrote Richard Correll, CHIME president and CEO, and Lynn Vogel, CHIME board chairman.