According to this article from Government Health IT, Health & Human Services Department officials are considering measures for the second stage of meaningful use even before healthcare providers get started on tackling the 2011 first stage requirements of the incentive program. The Health IT Policy Committee wants to prepare recommendations on 2013 meaningful use criteria by next April in order to give vendors enough time to build the more sophisticated applications into their electronic health record systems. The challenge is that the committee must come up with recommendations for second stage meaningful use objectives before they will be able to analyze the practical lessons and experiences from providers who set up EHR systems and meet the first stage requirements. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has said it could begin to pay the first incentives as early as May 2011.