Consumer Organizations Defend Meaningful Use Program

A coalition of consumer organizations has sent a letter to six Republican senators calling for the  meaningful use program to be bolstered, taking issue with a letter and white paper from the senators saying the program should be  rebooted, FierceEMR reports (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR,  5/16).

Background

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who  demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can  qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

On April 16, the GOP senators released a 28-page white paper — titled,  “REBOOT: Re-examining the Strategies Needed to Successfully Adopt Health IT” —  outlining their concerns about current federal health IT policy.

The white paper accompanied a letter that the six lawmakers sent to HHS  Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The letter requested information about the agency’s  progress in promoting EHR adoption through the meaningful use program.

The six Republican senators who released the white paper and signed the  letter are:

• Lamar Alexander (Tenn.);
• Richard Burr (N.C.);
• Tom Coburn (Okla.);
• Mike Enzi (Wyo.);
• Pat Roberts (Kan.); and
• John Thune (S.D.).

In the white paper, the lawmakers acknowledged that the meaningful use  program aims to improve health care quality and reduce costs. However, they  wrote, “nearly four years after the enactment … we see evidence that the  program is at risk of not achieving its goals and that $35 billion in taxpayer  money is being spent ineffectively in the process” (iHealthBeat,  4/17).

Details of Coalition’s Letter

The coalition — led by the Consumer Partnership for eHealth and the Campaign  for Better Care — defended the EHR incentive program and lauded Congress for  developing a quick, phased-in approach to health IT adoption (FierceEMR,  5/16).

The letter stated that it is “imperative” to keep meaningful use rulemaking  on its “intended trajectory and implement the lessons learned in order to ensure  that the outlay of public funds through this program results in a healthier  population, better care and more affordable health care costs.”

According to the letter, any delay or retooling of the meaningful use program  would:

• Stifle innovation;
• Slow progress toward interoperability goals; and
• Keep concrete, important changes to the health care system from reaching  patients (Bresnick, EHR Intelligence, 5/20).

Source: iHealthBeat

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