MU Final Rule Names 5 HL7 Standards

Health Level Seven International (HL7), the Ann Arbor, Mich.- based organization for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology, announced that five of its standards and guides will be used in the U.S. final rule on standards and certification criteria for meaningful use.

The interim final rule published in January of this year included:
• HL7 Version 2.5.1 for the submission of lab results to public health agencies.
• HL7 Version 2.3.1 or Version 2.5.1 for submitting information to public health agencies for surveillance or reporting (excluding adverse event reporting).
• HL7 Version 2.3.1 or Version 2.5.1 for submitting information to immunization registries as the content exchange standard and the CDC maintained HL7 standard code CVX—Vaccines Administered as the vocabulary standard.
• HL7 Clinical Document Architecture, Release 2 (CDA) Continuity of Care Document (CCD), a Version 3 standard based on the HL7 Reference Information Model, as one of two options for content exchange standards for the receipt of a patient summary record.
• HL7 Version 2.5.1 Implementation Guide for Electronic Laboratory Reporting to Public Health when HL7 Version 2.5.1 is used for reporting lab results to public health agencies.