Weekly roundup: Meaningful Use gets day on Capitol Hill

Meaningful Use is in the spotlight this week with a Congressional hearing regarding its success, the latest numbers of those who have registered for and received incentive payments from the EHR incentive program and a first look at Stage 3.

Witnesses attending the Congressional Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation’s hearing on Meaningful Use on Nov. 14 overwhelmingly testified in favor of the program and called for ongoing support from the government.

Ranking member Donna Edwards (D-Md.) asked about the recent New York Times article indicating that EHRs lead to the practice of upcoding. Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator for HIT, responded that the article examined trends in billing up to 2010 which predates the implementation of the EHR incentive program.

“$20 billion in expenditures is an awfully high price tag for something that the private sector seems to be doing and offering at a much lower rate,” said Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), speaking to the development of health IT standards. “It doesn’t seem that it should take that much money especially at a time when we’re trying to bring down deficit spending so we can actually provide the medicine and the x-ray.”

Despite the questions about Meaningful Use, the ONC HIT Policy Committee released a copy of its proposed Stage 3 recommendations for public comment which includes “a collaborative model of care with shared responsibility and accountability, building upon the previous MU objectives.”

The report recommended increasing some of the percentage thresholds such clinical decision support interventions from five to 15 percent for all eligible hospitals and eligible providers (EPs), raising the required percentage of clinical lab results implemented in the EHR from 55 percent of results to 80 percent of results, and requiring more than 10 percent of patients use secure electronic messaging to communicate with EPs.

Some of the provisions new to Stage 3 include offering patients the capability to submit patient-generated information and to request amendments to their records online; requiring EHRs to receive, generate or access appropriate immunization recommendations; and requiring EHRs to be able to query other entities for outside records. 

Speaking during the Nov. 7 HIT Policy Committee meeting, Mostashari said Stage 3 offers an opportunity to “jump out of the groove and look for more disruption.” He asked the committee to come “at this with a fresh eye.”

President Barack Obama’s re-election provided more time, he said, but “before you know it, the opportunity for that urgency is lost.”

Do you support the Meaningful Use program? Please share your thoughts.

Beth Walsh

bwalsh@trimedmedia.com

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor