In the comments, Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the AHA, writes that many of the proposals put regulatory requirements ahead of experience with technology. The AHA believes this approach will have negative consequences. The association’s major concerns deal with the following:
• Implementation of the Medicare penalty phase;
• The proposed timing and staging of meaningful use Stage 2;
• The specific objectives and measures for Stage 2;
• The reporting of clinical quality measures through electronic health records.
Under Stage 2, hospitals who do not adopt electronic records by 2015 will be penalized with lower Medicare payments. Mr. Pollack points out that over 80 percent of hospitals have yet to meet Stage 1 meaningful use because of the high bar that was set and market factors, such as accelerating costs and limited vendor capacity. “Evidence also suggests that a digital divide is widening, with large and urban hospitals reaching much higher rates of adoption than small and rural facilities,” writes Mr. Pollack.
AHA will also comment on the proposed companion rule to Stage 2 from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
More Articles on Stage 2 Meaningful Use:
Report: Despite High Hospital Adoption Rates, Meaningful Use Requirements Seen as Challenge
CMS Releases Clinical Quality Measures for Stage 2 Notice of Proposed Rule Making
6 Best Practices for Implementing EMR, CPOE for Meaningful Use
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