As HIMSS12 attendees waited with bated breath for the announcement of the much-anticipated Stage 2 meaningful use regulations on Thursday morning, Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health information technology with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, stated in his keynote address that there would be further delays on their release.

"It's at the Federal Register; they are having formatting issues," he later added at a press conference, held at the Venetian Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. "[The regulations] are going to get promoted; I think people should just chill."

Although change takes time, innovation and sustained will, Mostashari noted that the nation is on the right track to start making meaningful use actually meaningful, by utilizing safer, coordinated care with better measures of quality. Specifically, interoperability and health information exchange were hot topics in his keynote speech.

"Making meaningful use of meaningful use can be the foundation of providers to help them thrive and survive in new health care economics," he said.

Mostashari remains optimistic that the program will continue to flourish and is unruffled by the upcoming elections, confidently adding that they don't pose any real threat to the program.

When asked for a hint about the mysterious Stage 2 regulations, all Elizabeth Holland, director of the HIT Initiatives Group for the Office of E-Health Standards and Services at CMS, could tell DOTmed News was that she is really excited.

"We are really excited about Stage 2, because we think it offers a lot of opportunities to improve our first regulation," she said.

"It is a proposed rule, so we are looking for public feedback," she added. "We want to hear what people like and what they don't like. And if they don't like things, we also want to hear suggestions for changes."

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