government
GOP leaders push for suspension of EHR bonuses
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 22, 2012
House Republicans have told the Dept. of Health and Human Services it should suspend incentive payments for adoption of electronic health records until improvements to the program are made.
GOP leaders have taken issue with EHR meaningful use criteria and the lack of interoperability among systems nationwide. Reps. Dave Camp (R, Mich.), Fred Upton (R, Mich.), Wally Herger (R, Calif.) and Joe Pitts (R, Pa.) sent an Oct. 4 letter urging the Obama administration to strengthen meaningful use standards and address the connectivity problems.
“It is highly counterproductive for providers to have purchased EHR systems that cannot ‘talk with one another’ and cannot perform basic functions because of the insufficient standards set by your agency,” the letter said. “You are missing an opportunity to reduce duplicative, unnecessary and even harmful care.”
The lawmakers were critical of the administration’s decision to set a low threshold for paperless drug orders, requiring them for only half of such patient encounters for stage 2 of the meaningful use program. At one point, HHS had proposed a 75% threshold for the earlier stage 1 of the program, the letter said.
Physicians are required to e-prescribe 40% of prescriptions during stage 1, and the rules for stage 2 represent a 10 percentage point increase.
HHS officials did not respond to a request for comment on the letter by this article’s deadline.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/10/22/gvbf1022.htm.
