On Tuesday, October 15, the American Medical Association (AMA) released their vision outlining the future of the EHR Incentive program and meaningful use. The blueprint was included in a letter to CMS and the ONC ahead of the anticipated release of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaning (NPRM) for Stage 3 meaningful use requirements.
In the statement issued by AMA, President Robart M. Wah, MD says “Physicians will always embrace technology that can help them provide better care for their patients and foster innovation, but improvements must be made to the Meaningful Use program in order for those goals to be achieved. We can no longer just delay the program from taking full effect. We must make the necessary changes to ensure that the Meaningful Use program requirements are in fact meaningful and deliver – not hinder – the intended improvements in patient care and practice efficiencies.”
AMA recommendations from the press release issued include:
- Adopting a more flexible approach for meeting Meaningful Use to allow more physicians to successfully participate
- Better aligning quality measure requirements including reducing the reporting burden on physicians and helping relieve them from overlapping penalties
- Ensuring quality measures and clinical decision support within the program are current to improve care for patients and ensure physicians are following the latest evidence
- Restructuring EHR certification to focus on key areas like interoperability
- Make optional the objectives physicians are finding most challenging including view, download and transmit transitions of care, and secure messaging
The letter apparently also reiterates the Association’s ongoing concerns with physicians meeting Stage 1 and Stage 2 program requirements. Specifically, the AMA would like to see that physicians who meet at least 50% of meaningful use requirements in any stage not be penalized starting in 2015,
You can read the full AMA press release here.