The American Medical Association and 38 other medical organizations recently sent a letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT suggesting that many specialists and other physicians might not participate in stages 2 and 3 of the meaningful use incentive program because it would require them to gather patient data that they typically do not collect, Modern Healthcare reports.
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.
In the letter, AMA and the other groups noted that some of the Stage 2 criteria require the use of IT infrastructure and tools that have yet to be developed.
The groups offered several recommendations on proposed criteria for stages 2 and 3 of the meaningful use program. For example, the group called for the addition of an "exclusion option" that would allow health care providers to opt out of any requirements that had little relevance to their routine practice (Daly, Modern Healthcare, 3/2).
Steven Stack, AMA board secretary, said inflexible requirements for meaningful use will hinder the health IT adoption process (AMA release, 3/1).
American Medical Group Association
The American Medical Group Association also recently released comments on the proposed Stage 2 meaningful use requirements. In the comments, AMGA recommended that ONC's Health IT Policy Committee should:
- Consult more with health care providers and vendors about the Stage 2 requirements;
- Provide more detail on several proposed objectives;
- Re-evaluate the deadlines and criteria for Stage 2; and
- Scale back some of the more aggressive requirements (CMIO, 3/1).
American Medical Informatics Association
In addition, the American Medical Informatics Association has submitted comments on the proposed Stage 2 requirements.
In the comments, AMIA said the meaningful use criteria and quality measures "should be carefully designed and tested to minimize the burden required to process and connect new pieces of information cognitively with the existing clinical record" (Medical News Today, 3/2).
Patient Privacy Rights
Deborah Peel, founder of the advocacy group Patient Privacy Rights, has submitted a letter suggesting that the draft criteria for meaningful use stages 2 and 3 lack sufficient patient privacy protections.
In the letter, Peel said the requirements are missing "the ability to control who can see and use personal health information and the ability to segment information so they can selectively share information."
She said the Federal Trade Commission and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology have called for more stringent patient privacy protections than ONC's Privacy and Security "Tiger Team," which is helping develop future meaningful use requirements (Goedert, Health Data Management, 3/1).