The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee approved a one-paragraph bill (H.R. 3120) Sept. 13 that would ease EHR reporting burdens for physicians and hospitals, reports the AHA News.
The bill would strike part of a sentence in the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which required the HHS secretary to create more stringent measures of meaningful use over time. Although meaningful use stage 3 has been delayed until 2019, some organizations, like AHA, are lauding the bill's early success.
"These rules contain provisions that are challenging, if not impossible, to meet and require use of immature technology standards," wrote AHA Executive Vice President Thomas Nickels in a July letter to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Burgess, MD, R-Texas. "Your bill would provide much-needed relief to hospitals as they work to ensure patients receive high-quality care."
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