During the American Hospital Association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday, health care policy leaders addressed some of the group's concerns over the proposed "meaningful use" rules for health IT, HealthLeaders Media reports.
Proposed federal regulations describe how hospitals and health care providers can demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records to qualify for incentive payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package (Simmons, HealthLeaders Media, 4/27).
AHA Pushes for Changes
AHA has been running ads urging CMS to scale back the proposed requirements for hospitals to qualify for the incentive payments (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 4/26).
AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack said the proposed rule is "asking too much, too soon." He said the rule should be adjusted to offer "a reasonable, phased-in approach" for hospitals to qualify for meaningful use incentive payments.
He also said the rule should be changed to allow all facilities within a hospital system -- even if they share a provider number -- and hospitals with multiple campuses to be eligible for the incentive payments (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 4/27).
Lawmakers Respond
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told AHA members on Monday that he agrees that the proposed rule "pushes things too fast, too soon" and could hamper effective health IT adoption (AHANews, 4/26).
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told the hospital leaders that he and other lawmakers have urged CMS to abandon the "all-or-nothing" approach for achieving meaningful use and instead adopt "a practical staged approach to EHR adoption" that "reward[s] the efforts already underway in various hospitals" (HealthLeaders Media, 4/27).
Blumenthal Predicts Hospital Collaboration
Meanwhile, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal told meeting attendees that his office is confident that hospitals and the federal government will "go on to work together as partners toward what I think we share as common objectives -- which is an understanding that without electronic information we cannot be as good as we all aspire to be."
With rule writing currently underway, Blumenthal avoided discussing specifics of the final meaningful use rule and instead focused on other health IT issues, such as the creation of a national information network and the "Beacon" community grant program (CQ HealthBeat, 4/26).