The American Hospital Association penned an Oct. 31 letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to address key health IT issues in the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act.
In October, CMS released guidelines related to the prevention of "information blocking," or actions that inhibit the exchange of health information. The agency said select providers will have to attest to three statements about their use of certified EHR technology to demonstrate they have acted "in good faith" to exchange electronic health information.
The AHA voiced concern that the attestations would "unfairly [place] hospitals at risk of payment penalties for technical issues outside of their control," since technology companies and the federal government have "so far failed to create the infrastructure to make sharing information electronically easy and efficient."
The AHA accepted the first attestation, which ensures clinicians did not "knowingly and willfully take action (such as to disable functionality) to limit or restrict the compatibility or interoperability" of their EHR. However, the organization urged CMS to remove the two attestations focused on implementing technologies that allow for bidirectional information exchange and responding to requests to exchange information.
"The AHA urges removing the second two attestations," the AHA wrote. "The last two of the three attestations go beyond both statutory intent and the current capability of the technology hospitals have available to them. That unfairly places hospitals at risk of payment penalties for technical issues outside of their control."
The AHA also said it supports the committee's commitment to reducing the documentation burden on clinicians using EHRs and reaffirmed its desire to see Stage 3 of meaningful use canceled.
To access the full letter, click here.