Four prominent Republican Congressmen have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius criticizing stage 2 meaningful use regulations and urging the department to suspend meaningful use incentive payments.
The letter, signed by Dave Camp, chairman of the Committee on Ways & Means, Fred Upton, chairman of the Committee on Energy & Commerce, Wally Herger, chairman of the Ways & Mean's Subcommittee on Health, and Joe Pitts, chairman of Energy & Commerce's Subcommittee on Health, calls the stage 2 meaningful use rules "in some respects, weaker than the proposed stage 1 regulations released in 2009."
The lawmakers argue the weaker rules will result in a "less efficient system that squanders taxpayer dollars and does little, if anything, to improve outcomes for Medicare." They also criticize the lack of current interoperability among various electronic health records systems, writing, "it is highly counterproductive for providers to have purchased EHR systems that cannot "talk to one another" and cannot perform basic functions because of insufficient standards set by your agency."
The letter urges HHS to immediately suspend meaningful use incentive payments until the department "promulgates universal interoperable standards" and to "increase what's expected of meaningful users."
ONC Issues Meaningful Use Call to Action for Critical Access, Rural Hospitals
The letter, signed by Dave Camp, chairman of the Committee on Ways & Means, Fred Upton, chairman of the Committee on Energy & Commerce, Wally Herger, chairman of the Ways & Mean's Subcommittee on Health, and Joe Pitts, chairman of Energy & Commerce's Subcommittee on Health, calls the stage 2 meaningful use rules "in some respects, weaker than the proposed stage 1 regulations released in 2009."
The lawmakers argue the weaker rules will result in a "less efficient system that squanders taxpayer dollars and does little, if anything, to improve outcomes for Medicare." They also criticize the lack of current interoperability among various electronic health records systems, writing, "it is highly counterproductive for providers to have purchased EHR systems that cannot "talk to one another" and cannot perform basic functions because of insufficient standards set by your agency."
The letter urges HHS to immediately suspend meaningful use incentive payments until the department "promulgates universal interoperable standards" and to "increase what's expected of meaningful users."
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