House GOP pushs for stop to EHR incentives

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, four House Republicans urged HHS to suspend "meaningful use" incentive payments for electronic health records (Source: "GOP lawmakers urge halt on meaningful-use payments," Modern Healthcare, Oct. 4, 2012).

The letter from Dave Camp (R-MI), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; Wally Herger (R-CA), chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health; Fred Upton (R-MI), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Joe Pitts (R-PA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health said that "insufficient standards" for EHR meaningful use have left providers with systems that cannot "talk with one another."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, launcehed the incentive program last year, awarding up to $44,000 under Medicare or up to $64,000 under Medicaid to clinicians who use EHRs in specified ways designed to improve and streamline care.

"We urge you to rethink your strategy related to Meaningful Use criteria and instead focus on the state goal of making health care delivery more efficient and affordable," the letter says. "Continuing down the current path will exacerbate Medicare's looming bankruptcy, create demand for billions of dollars in additional incentive payments once interoperatiblity standards are finally in place, and further frustrate providers."

In a press release responding to the letter, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a large trade organization for professionals and vendors in the field, said that "There are clear indicators that the incentives are working."