Health Innovation Council urges Congress to reconsider EHR program

Claiming it has failed to improve patient care, the Health Innovation Council—an independent group of healthcare experts—is urging Congress to take a second look at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid’s (CMS’s) EHR incentive program.

In a response to an April 16 report from six republican senators that criticized CMS’ Meaningful Use program, the council delivered its own commentary, entitled “Let's Admit the Emperor Has No Clothes - It's Time to Redesign EHRs to Improve Patient Care.”

“It’s time to reassess the mad race for Meaningful Use dollars that CMS has fostered. CMS’ program is not resulting in EHRs that improve patient care, as mandated by Congress when it created and funded the program,” according to the May 16 letter. “CMS needs to change its Meaningful Use criteria to ensure that providers implement EHRs in ways that improve patient care.”

The council also asserted that the EHR stimulus program is causing “a massive disruption of providers’ patient care” as they pursue Meaningful Use incentive payments.  Further, they claim it increases burdens on physicians, nurses and clinicians given the time and effort required to utilize EHRs as they are currently designed. Also, they wrote of the “unprecedentedly huge expenditure” providers face in purchasing EHR hardware and software at a time when they operate under intense financial pressures.

“It’s time to redo the Meaningful Use EHR stimulus program to ensure that EHRs are designed and implemented in ways that help them improve patient care quality, safety and efficiency. It’s time to ‘reboot’ before all of the Meaningful Use monies are spent and make that happen,” according to the letter. If this is not done, the council advised halting the program and instead directing Meaningful Use dollars to providers that demonstrate “meaningful improvements in patient care.”

The full commentary can be read here.