HITPC advances Stage 3 recommendations

Meaningful Use (MU) has been top of mind for most in healthcare with Stage 2 requirements presenting numerous hurdles for eligible hospitals and professionals.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Marilynn Tavenner at HIMSS14 announced that EPs and EHs could apply for hardship exceptions and a new cause of “2014 vendor issues” was introduced this week.

Meanwhile, the Health IT Policy Committee voted to approve the MU Work Group’s Stage 3 recommendations, after much debate.

The recommendations were scaled back from 26 to 18, with the work group focused on four areas of emphasis: clinical decision support, patient engagement, care coordination and population management.

“We need to be careful to weigh the impact on providers,” said Paul Tang, MD, co-chair of the committee, when introducing the updated Stage 3 recommendations. “We can’t burden them unnecessarily. We need to be flexible as we can be.” He also said the Work Group made a point of avoiding requirements where the standards are not mature and tighten its focus. “We carefully selected those with the most bang for the buck.”

“I think we’re going too slow,” said Neil Calman, MD, president and CEO of The Institute for Family Health. “If we keep slowing down, we will have wasted billions of dollars,” he said, referring to incentive payments.

More than $20 billion already has been spent, said David Lansky, PhD, president and CEO of Pacific Business Group on Health. “The goal has always been to get to outcomes. There are lots of individual trees and bushes we’ve been whacking at” but the aggregate doesn’t meet the goals. He also cited the committee’s “rearview mirror process” where “we need to create some space for much more aggressive forward movement in this model.”

While he said he appreciates the comments about moving faster, Marc Probst, CIO of Intermountain Healthcare, added that providers are working incredibly hard and still are not going to meet the requirements of Stage 2. “I love this list for Stage 3, it’s exactly what we need to be doing but the industry is hurting to get done what we’ve already put on the table.”

“What good is Stage 3 if nobody gets there?” said Gayle B. Harrell, a Florida state representative appointed to the HIT Policy Committee by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Do you think scaling back Stage 3 recommendations is enough to help providers struggling with the incentive program's requirements?

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor