The American Academy of Family Physicians recently announced that it supports the objectives of the federal government's new "meaningful use" rules but foresees implementation challenges for small and mid-sized physician practices, Modern Healthcare reports.
Federal officials recently released proposed regulations describing how health care providers can demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records to qualify for incentive payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package.
Support
Steven Waldren, director of AAFP's Center for Health IT, said his organization supports the regulations' emphasis on care coordination, patient-centered care and quality.
He added that AAFP also supports meaningful use requirements for:
- Analysis and reporting of evidence-based performance and quality measures;
- Clinical decision support;
- Electronic prescribing; and
- Sharing health information and educational resources with patients.
Reservations
However, Waldren said AAFP is concerned that small and mid-sized physician practices will face difficulty meeting the meaningful use criteria.
In particular, AAFP said the collection and documentation of performance data could pose administrative hurdles for smaller practices (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 1/22).
Formal Comments in the Works
AAFP is expected to offer a formal response to the meaningful use rules some time before the public commenting deadline at the end of February (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 1/25).