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Representatives Ellmers, Price, Scott and 113 Members Lead a Letter to HHS and OMB Administrators Urging Delay of Stage 3, the Meaningful Use Proposed Rule

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following statement after leading a letter with Dr. Price and Representative Scott to Director Shaun Donovan at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Secretary Sylvia Burwell at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This letter, signed by 116 members of Congress, urges both OMB and HHS to refrain from finalizing Meaningful Use Stage 3:

“In my ongoing conversations with those working to comply with Meaningful Use standards and deadlines, there is a clear consensus among healthcare providers: they are concerned with how they will meet existing mandates of the Meaningful Use Program, many are frustrated by the continued onslaught of regulatory changes and most are desperate for relief.”

“In leading this letter with my colleagues and acquiring a total of 116 signatories, we send a straightforward message to the primary agencies tasked with overseeing implementation of the Meaningful Use Program. It’s time that we focus on interoperability instead of Rulemaking to ensure that these products work for our nation’s providers.  If the administration dives into Stage 3 prematurely, we only stand to aggravate providers and vendors who have already experienced ample challenges in meeting attestation deadlines.” 

For a complete list of representatives who have signed onto the letter urging a Stage 3 delay, click here.

An excerpt from this letter can be found below. The full text of the letter can be found here:

“Dear Director Donovan and Secretary Burwell,

We are writing to ask that you refrain from finalizing Meaningful Use Stage 3 at this time and work to refocus the program to better serve patients and the providers who care for them. We have an interest in being active partners in successfully enabling health information technology to serve as the digital infrastructure necessary to achieve delivery system reform and meet the needs of a modern healthcare system. To that end, we urge you to refrain from finalizing Meaningful Use Stage 3 and 2015 Edition Certification at this time. 

… While healthcare providers are committed to implementing EHRs, many are becoming disenchanted by the seemingly unrealistic expectations dictated by the Meaningful Use Program. Unfortunately, the frustrations voiced by providers and policymakers regarding the systems deployed in over 80 percent of hospitals and physician offices are real.  According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an estimated 257,000 providers are currently subject to payment adjustments in the 2015 program year for failing to meet the Meaningful Use Program’s requirements. We believe this signals a failure that is indicative of issues outside the hands of health care providers. We believe the solutions to address the provider community’s concerns are well within the Department’s reach and action must be taken now, as we have arrived at a pivotal time in the Program.

We appreciate the opportunity to share our constituents’ perspectives on the need to reevaluate how we can foster an interoperable health information infrastructure that does not disrupt patient care. We reiterate the importance of refraining from issuing the Meaningful Use Stage 3 and the accompanying certification rule until a rigorous evaluation of provider participation in Stage 2 has been completed…”