With healthcare providers facing a number of new regulations and standards, many professionals are feeling unnecessarily burdened. But national coordinator for health IT Farzad Mostashari says that implementing a certified EHR system could help make meeting these regulations a simpler process.

Within a few short months, healthcare providers will have to start complying with the new ICD-10 regulations, HIPAA 5010 and the meaningful use rules. Dealing with the long list of regulations covering diverse areas of a practice's operations contained in these initiatives can be challenging.

But Mostashari told Health Data Management that adopting an EHR system can help practices satisfy the requirements of all these various programs. The technology obviously enables medical offices to comply with the meaningful use rules, but it may also make it easier to adopt the new coding requirements of ICD-10 and the standards for electronic data management of HIPAA 5010.

ICD-10 compliance must be reached by October 1, 2012, while the deadline for HIPAA 5010 compliance is January 1, 2012. These dates are within the deadline for meeting the meaningful use rules. One technology initiative that satisfies all three sets of regulations at once may simplify the process for practices.