Medical societies want flexibility on EHR meaningful use rules

Medical societies want you to have more flexibility in meeting the meaningful use requirements of the EHR incentive program.

The American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Osteopathic Association and 34 other societies wrote to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in response to a request for comments on the proposed next stage of meaningful use criteria.

Among the societies’ requests:

• A survey of physicians who are and aren’t participating in Stage 1 of the incentive program to identify barriers to participation.

• Excluding meaningful use measures that don’t apply to a physician’s routine practice.

• Removing measures that require adherence from nonphysicians.

• Assessing each measure from Stage 1 to ensure it is needed.

• Eliminating high reporting thresholds for objectives that cannot be met now due to lack of available tools or health information exchanges health information exchanges (HIEs).

“While we support a staged approach to meaningful use, this approach must take into account the current technological realities and the financial and administrative burdens placed on physicians,” AMA Secretary Steven J. Stack said.

See the letter here.