Congress urges HHS to hold off on final EHR Stage 3, certification rules

Two Senate committee chairmen and 116 members of the House this week asked the Department of Health and Human Services to refrain from finalizing Stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records programs at this time. Sens. John Thune (R-SD), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, urged HHS to immediately adopt Stage 2 modifications and delay making final rules for Stage 3 until at least 2017, saying “the government, doctors and hospitals need time to do it right.” In a letter to HHS and the Office of Management and Budget, the House members reiterated “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...A learning health system should incorporate the lessons learned from Stage 2 into Stage 3. This is not possible at present because a minority of providers have achieved Stage 2 and because the Stage 2 modifications rule has yet to be implemented.” The House letter was spearheaded by Reps. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), Tom Price (R-GA) and David Scott (R-GA).