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AHA, AMA Seek More Flexible Meaningful Use Requirements
Jul 30, 2013 11:56 am | By: Anne Zieger

The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association have sent a joint letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for more flexibility in the requirements for the Meaningful Use program, iHealthBeat reports.

The two trade groups, which called the program’s requirements “overly burdensome,” argue that as the current Meaningful Use program is structured, it’s too hard for some providers to keep up. “[W]e believe that the best way to move the program forward and ensure that no providers, particularly small and rural ones, are left behind is to realign the meaningful use program’s current requirements to ensure a safe, orderly transition to Stage 2,” the letter adds.

The letter makes four recommendations to improve the Meaningful Use program for providers, iHealthBeat notes:

* Let providers meet Stage 1 requirements using either a 2011- or 2014-certified EMR

* Set up a 90-day reporting period for the first year of each new stage of the program, applicable to all providers;

* Give providers increased flexibility to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements

* Extend each stage of the Meaningful Use program to a minimum term of three years for all providers

The AHA submitted also submitted testimony to the Senate Finance Committee last week asking legislators to give providers more flexibility within the Meaningful Use program.

As things stand, unless current requirements for electronic clinical quality measures are changed, “clinicians [will be] spending extensive amounts of time working for the EHRs” rather than having the EMRs work for them, the trade group suggested.

As part of its testimony, the AHA presented case studies drawn from four separate hospitals. Based on the issues arising at these hospitals, the group recommended several changes to MU, including using fewer, better-tested electronic quality reporting measures, starting with Stage 2, and making EMRs and electronic clinical quality measure reporting tools more flexible to align data capture with the nuances of workflow.

http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2013/07/30/aha-ama-seek-more-flexible-meaningful-use-requirements/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HospitalEMRandEHR+%28Hospital+EMR+and+EHR%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

Related Articles:
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•Senators Join Initiative To Scrutinize Meaningful Use