In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Medical Group Management Association has called for a moratorium on meaningful use stage 2 penalties for physician practices that have attested to stage 1.
MGMA's position stems from concerns over vendor readiness to provide upgrades and support in time to help practices avoid penalties in 2015. The letter states: "Even if a vendor does upgrade their product to meet the Stage 2 criteria and successfully certifies this product late in 2013 or sometime in 2014, these products must still be deployed to the client practices and staff trained on the new software and new Stage 2 reporting requirements."
To combat the issue, MGMA recommends HHS extend both the stage 2 and stage 1 reporting periods to help practices avoid penalties, conduct a comprehensive vendor survey to assess readiness and build additional flexibility into the stage 2 reporting requirements.
MGMA has 22,500 members representing 280,000 physicians nationwide.
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