The American Hospital Association is asking CMS for a more flexible meaningful use program, including a 70 percent passing rate.
Currently, the meaningful use program employs an all-or-nothing approach for its requirements, where the failure to meet any part of an objective or slightly missing a threshold means the provider does not successful attest and faces penalization. The AHA says this approach is burdensome and unfair. "It is…unfair to providers that make good faith efforts to comply, may actually comply with a large percentage of the requirements, expend significant resources and funds in doing so, but still fall short," according to a letter AHA sent to Patrick Conway, MD, Acting Principal Deputy Administrator for CMS.
The AHA recommends CMS adopt a 70 percent passing rate for meaningful use, saying such a threshold is "achievable and practical."
What's more, the AHA indicates CMS does not lack the legal authority to make such changes to the problem, and any of CMS' defense of the all-or-nothing approach is based in policy, not law.
"We strongly believe that CMS is not legally required to maintain its all-or-nothing approach to meaningful use. Rather, we believe that the agency possesses ample legal authority to adopt a more flexible approach," writes the AHA.
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