A large number of hospitals and health systems are concerned about their capability to meet Stage 1 of Meaningful Use, according to a new poll released by KPMG, a U.S. tax, consulting and advisory services firm.
The survey, conducted during a recent webcast and released April 24, revealed that while almost three-fourths of hospitals surveyed (71 percent) reported that they were more than 50 percent of the way to completing adoption of their electronic health records, many of them worried about meeting the requirements. Less than half (48 percent) were confident in their level of readiness to meet Stage 1 of Meaningful Use. More than one-third (39 percent) were only somewhat confident in their ability to meet Stage 1; 3 percent admitted that they weren't at all ready to meet the requirements.
The biggest barrier to meeting the Stage 1 requirements--according to 25 percent of respondents--involved understanding the requirements necessary to demonstrate Meaningful Use. Other obstacles included training efforts, capturing the data electronically, lack of a dedicated Meaningful Use team and not having the appropriate certified technology.
"Almost all providers want to comply and earn the incentives, but many are struggling to fully understand the requirements from a technological and care delivery standpoint," Mike Beaty, principal at KPMG and health IT enablement leader told FierceEMR.
The results dovetail with other reports that providers are struggling with Meaningful Use. The number of registrations are rising, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but the number of providers actually successfully attesting is lower than expected, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
To learn more:
- read this KPMG announcement
- read CMS' latest registration and attestation figures (.pdf)
- here's MedPAC's report (.pdf)