Associations call on CMS for more meaningful use program flexibility. Health Data Management (11/5, Slabodkin) reports that healthcare industry groups are renewing calls “for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to shorten the reporting period in 2015 and provide more program flexibility” in light of “continued low numbers of eligible hospitals and professionals who have attested to Stage 2 meaningful use.” The article adds that “in a joint press release, the American Medical Association, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and Medical Group Management Association called the results ‘disappointing, yet predictable’ and voiced their shared concerns with the lower-than-expected numbers and continued reports detailing nationwide difficulty in meeting requirements for meaningful use.” FierceEMR (11/5, Hirsch) points out that only “43,898 eligible professionals (EPs) and 1,903 eligible hospitals (EHs)” attested “for the 2014 reporting period, as of Nov. 1, despite the fact that there are now more than 500,000 active registrants signed up for the Meaningful Use program, according to the latest data” from the CMS. The article adds that healthcare professionals “have been struggling to transition to Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program all year; many providers have become increasingly frustrated with the program and with their EHRs.” Healthcare Informatics (11/5, Raths) reports that even though “eligible professionals have until the end of February to report their progress, only two percent have demonstrated Stage 2 capabilities thus far.” Even so, “CMS and ONC representatives noted that hospitals tend to wait until the end of their fiscal years and the very end of the attestation reporting period to attest, and they thought they would have a clearer picture in January.” EHR Intelligence (11/5, Murphy) reports that over the last few months, “the AMA has championed the need for addressing a lack of EHR usability and has specifically cited meaningful use as a driver of increased EHR adoption but equally complicit in contributing to a lack of EHR usability for clinical end-users.” AMA president-elect Steven J. Stack, MD, said, “In addition to a shortened reporting period, CMS must end its one-size-fits all approach to achieve the goals of the Meaningful Use program, which are to create a secure and interoperable infrastructure.” Dr. Stack added, “We believe the stringent pass/fail requirements for meeting Meaningful Use, combined with a tsunami of other overlapping regulations, are keeping physicians from participating in the Meaningful Use program.” Wah discusses medical industry’s adoption of technology. Fortune (11/5, Gupta) interviews Robert Wah, MD, president of the American Medical Association, who “discussed the medical industry’s adoption of technology,” particularly electronic health records. Dr. Wah explained the reason why the US hasn’t already seen “widespread adoption” of EHRs, pointing out that a roadmap needs to be followed that involves going from “paper records to digital, then connect[ing] the digital records and network them together. Finally we need to be able to analyze all the digital information.” Dr. Wah explained that the AMA came up with “eight characteristics” needed from government and vendors to make EHR use better. He also bemoaned the fact that “there’s no partial credit for complying” with meaningful use and emphasized that government flexibility is needed.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:04:45 +0000
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