During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, health care providers and health IT vendors recommended that Stage 2 of the meaningful use program be delayed by one year until Oct. 1, 2015, Government Health IT reports (Sullivan, Government Health IT, 7/24).
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.
More than 50% of eligible health care professionals and 80% of eligible hospitals have begun using EHR systems since the meaningful use program launched in 2011, according to CMS.
So far, the Obama administration has paid almost 310,000 health care providers a total of $15.5 billion for implementing EHR systems, according to CMS.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier this month, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari and Patrick Conway — director of CMS’ Center for Clinical Standards and Quality –pushed back against lawmakers’ requests to delay the program (iHealthBeat, 7/18).
During the hearing, providers and vendor representatives said Stage 2 of the meaningful use program is too rigid and could increase the digital divide between urban and rural caregivers.
John Glaser — CEO of Siemens Health Services — said other federal government mandates — such as the ICD-10 transition, payment reforms and new care models — combined with Stage 2 of the meaningful use program could create a “perfect storm” to cripple hospitals (Government Health IT, 7/24).
He warned that “many providers may opt out of further participation” in the meaningful use program if deadlines are not changed.
Glaser recommended that lawmakers delay the implementation of Stage 2 for one year and reconfigure the program to have each stage take three years.
Marty Fattig — CEO of Nemaha County Hospital, a 20-bed facility in Nebraska — noted that “most rural hospitals have yet to meet the exceedingly complex requirements for Stage 1” of the meaningful use program and that executives of such facilities worry that vendors will not be able to accommodate them in the program’s tight time frame.
He added that health IT systems can “introduce risk when things go wrong,” especially if they are “upgraded under severe time constraints” (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 7/24).
Janet Marchibroda — the health innovation initiative director at the Bipartisan Policy Center — urged lawmakers not to delay the start of Stage 2.
The next phase of the meaningful use program “advances considerably the engagement of patients and you don’t see that much of it in Stage 1,” she said, adding, “The information sharing is the primary driver in reductions in costs that we’ll see through health IT.”
However, Marchibroda suggested that lawmakers could let health care providers — such as accountable care organizations — that have made a lot of health IT progress reap the benefits of Stage 2 of the program, while providing more time for rural and critical access hospitals that are lagging behind (Government Health IT, 7/24).
Meanwhile, the National Partnership for Women and Families in a statement urged lawmakers not to delay the program and criticized the committee for not including patients and family caregivers at the hearing, according to CQ HealthBeat.
Following the hearing, committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he was “[n]ot yet” convinced to delay Stage 2 implementation (CQ HealthBeat, 7/24).
Source: iHealthBeat
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