HHS issues new meaningful use regulations despite calls for reassessment
Late in the afternoon of Oct. 6, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two major regulations pertaining to the electronic health record (EHR) meaningful use program.
- “The Medicare and Medicaid Programs Electronic Health Record Incentive Program–Stage 3 and Modifications to Meaningful Use in 2015 through 2017” final rule includes changes in current reporting requirements, as well as setting forth requirements for meaningful use Stage 3, which is planned for implementation in 2018.
- The “2015 Edition Health Information Technology Certification Criteria, 2015 Edition Base Electronic Health Record Definition, and ONC Health IT Certification Program Modifications” rule finalizes new certification criteria for EHR systems that will qualify for achieving meaningful use in Stage 3.
The AMA is still in the process of reviewing the lengthy and complex regulations. The first rule does ease some of the previous meaningful use requirements, although its late publication raises questions about whether and how physicians who postponed reporting in 2015 can qualify for a hardship exemption.
That rule also finalizes new requirements for meaningful use Stage 3, despite calls from the AMA and the Federation to postpone issuing more requirements until the overall framework is developed for the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) mandated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. HHS has, however, noted that it will continue to receive comments on Stage 3, suggesting that the program may still be revised in the future.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate also urged regulators to delay finalizing the meaningful use Stage 3 regulations. In the House, Reps. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., Tom Price, MD, R-Ga., and David Scott, D-Ga., led a bipartisan letter that was signed by 113 other members of the House, urging a delay in the rule.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a similar letter to the administration on the same day.
The AMA will urge the administration to use the 60-day comment period and the upcoming MIPS rulemaking process to evaluate and reset the meaningful use program.