"Stage 1 was mostly about tracking the information many practices already had," Kosiorek said. "Pulling that data out is a lot of what Stage 1 Meaningful Use was. It was just a reporting package to say 'Yes, we did this' and 'No, we didn't do that' and how many times and what patient population was affected.

"Most of the time, Stage 1 was about little tweaks that needed to be made: data that needed to be tracked, reports that needed to be done," he added. "Now, with Stage 2, we are getting to the point where some action needs to be taken with the patient, such as exchanging information with the patient through the portal. The requirements have stepped up for Stage 2."

Plenty of resources are available to help people understand the rules and regulations surrounding meaningful use.

"You can bone up on this with an hour of reading the PowerPoints on the CMS website," Kosiorek said.

In addition, "many specialties have affinity groups or resources specific to that specialty, that will tell them, for instance, what the best PQRS measures are for their specialty. A lot of times you can just do a Web search on 'meaningful use' or 'orthopedic surgeon,' for example, and it will come back with specifics about that."

Kosiorek read the final rule for Stage 1 meaningful use when it was published in the Federal Register.

"It was a decent read, and it was pretty easy to understand," he said. "It was written in a straightforward, conversational tone, rather than boring, lawyer jargon."

After providers have developed an in-house expert on meaningful use, it's time to talk to their EHR vendor.

"Find out what the vendor's timetable is to perform an upgrade and ready themselves for Stage 2," Kosiorek said.

At this point in the process, "you have the knowledge of the regulations, you know what you need to do, and you know what the vendor's capabilities are. Next you have to do a gap analysis between where you are and where you need to be," he said.

The final step is to "develop and implement a compliance plan, based on your gap analysis." Is meaningful use compliance ultimately worth the trouble it takes to implement it?

Kosiorek believes it is: "Without meaningful use, we would still be in the Wild West of crazy definitions: what is an EHR? What does an EHR do? With meaningful use, we are defining what we are capable of, and then we are executing on that.

"That's why I'm an optimist about meaningful use," he added. "I think it brought us years ahead of where we would have been without it."