The nation's largest association of physicians is urging the federal government take steps to improve the Meaningful Use (MU) program to better meet the needs of doctors and patients, while it focuses on promoting the interoperability of electronic health records.
"Doctors want to spend their time with patients, not measuring the number of clicks," says Steven J. Stack, M.D., president of the American Medical Association (AMA) in an announcement urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to consider a series of reforms to Stage 3 of the MU program.
"We want a successful transition to digital health records, and we also want the new Medicare law to succeed. It will take thoughtful changes in the regulations to support physicians as they treat patients through new models of care," he says.
In particular, the AMA recommends that CMS change the pass/fail program design, remove threshold requirements for measures outside physicians' control and support the re-use of data to reduce the documentation burden, according to a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt.
Moreover, the organization is asking CMS for more MU flexibility in light of physicians' upcoming transition to the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and alternative payment models created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
The American Academy of Family Physicians expressed similar concerns in a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell earlier this month calling for an even more significant delay and overhaul of the MU program.
"Physicians face significant challenges with their EHRs and in meeting current Meaningful Use standards. Until the Meaningful Use program is improved and the EHR issues are resolved, it is difficult to foresee a large percentage of physicians--particularly physicians in small and independent practices--being successful in MACRA programs," the AAFP wrote. "EHRs should be a tool for success in a physician's practice, not an obstacle to overcome."
The AAFP has long been urging CMS to pause its movement toward MU3 until more is known about how MACRA will connect with MU criteria, Reid Blackwelder, M.D., the AAFP's immediate past president, told FiercePracticeManagement in an exclusive interview. "We don't think it makes sense to move forward when we have a much larger system that's about to change," he said.
The AMA has also repeatedly called on CMS to address the challenges of the MU program before moving on to Stage 3, and leads a campaign comprised of 111 medical societies, including the AAFP, calling for Congress to "refocus" Stage 3, FierceEMR reported previously.
To learn more:
- see the AMA announcement
- here's the AMA letter (.pdf)
- read the AAFP letter (.pdf)