AMA, Medical Societies Comment on Proposed "Meaningful Use" Rule for EHR Programs

The American Medical Association, along with 95 state and specialty medical societies, submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the proposed rule outlining the meaningful use criteria for the electronic health records incentive programs, according to an AMA news release.

"The AMA is supportive of the widespread adoption and meaningful use of EHRs by physicians, but the Stage 1 criteria proposed by CMS are too aggressive," AMA Board Member Steven J. Stack, MD, said in the release. "It could unreasonably punish physicians who undertake great efforts to achieve meaningful use of EHRs — only to be denied incentive payments due to overly complex and unattainable criteria."

The AMA suggested a number of revisions to the proposed rule to help ease adoption and use of EHR, including the following mentioned in the release:

• Remove the "all or nothing" approach and require physicians to meet five of the 25 proposed objectives and measures instead of all 25.
• Eliminate the objectives and measures that don't directly apply to EHR adoption, such as checking insurance eligibility electronically.
• Revise the definition of meaningful use for certain hospital-based physicians to broaden eligibility for the federal incentive programs.
• Reduce the number of quality measure reporting requirements and allow physicians to identify only three clinically relevant measures.

The AMA believes the reporting criteria require more flexibility and more help for physicians by CMS in identifying what data are necessary for accurate reporting, according to the release. The Association also said that it supports a staged approach to health IT adoption and is willing to work with CMS to finalized regulations related to EHR.

Read the AMA's release on EHR adoption.