On Wednesday, the American Medical Association released a memo saying that the final rule for the "meaningful use" of electronic health records is an improvement over the proposed rule but that it also contains several problems, Modern Healthcare reports (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 7/21).
The final rule, released last week, sets criteria for providers to meet to receive Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments included in the 2009 economic stimulus package for the meaningful use of EHRs (Pecquet, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 7/21).
According to the AMA memo, problems with the final rule include:
- Not enough time for health care providers to comply with the requirements prior to the program's January 2011 start date;
- The total number of measures -- 20 -- that the rule requires physicians to meet is too high;
- The exclusion of incentives for health care providers who see at least 90% of their patients in an inpatient or emergency department setting;
- Short time frames for electronically furnishing patient information;
- The lack of an appeals process for physicians to challenge any aspect of the incentive program (CMIO, 7/21); and
- A dearth of any EHRs currently available that meet all of the requirements.
AMA noted that CMS followed several of the association's suggestions in crafting the final rule, including:
- The removal of administrative requirements from the first phase of EHR adoption; and
- A reduction in the number of criteria with which providers must comply (Modern Healthcare, 7/21).
AMA said it will work with other stakeholders -- including CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT -- to help physicians purchase, implement and use EHRs (CMIO, 7/21).