The American Medical Association and 41 medical societies have formed a coalition to request the federal government pauses the final stages of the meaningful use program.
The medical societies sent letters to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan. The letters note MU Stage 3 regulations were developed before and without considering changes associated with the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act.
"There is growing bipartisan recognition in Congress that the direction of the meaningful use program needs to be reassessed in light of usability and interoperability challenges with electronic health record systems," said AMA President Steven J. Stack, MD. "Poorly performing systems that do not facilitate the seamless exchange of data would severely undermine the ability of the health system to support the implementation of the payment reforms outlined in MACRA."
The AMA hopes pausing Stage 3 will allow the administration to implement necessary changes to the MU program.