Congress Urges White House to Postpone MU Stage III

On September 29, 2015, congressional leaders continued to press the Obama administration to immediately adopt Meaningful Use Stage 2 modifications and delay final rulemaking for Meaningful Use Stage 3 to begin no sooner than January 1, 2017. U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) call comes as a bipartisan group of 96 Republicans and 20 Democrats in the House of Representatives in a separate letter to the administration urged it to “pause” the process of making stage three rules final. In a letter sent yesterday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Thune wrote “Patients need an interoperable system that enables doctors and hospitals to share their electronic health records, but the government, doctors, and hospitals need time to do it right. The modified stage two rule will enable more providers to comply with the government’s requirements. It should be adopted immediately to give physicians and hospitals time to adapt to these huge changes.” “To date, taxpayers have invested $30 billion to encourage electronic health records adoption. While all hospitals and most physicians met the requirements of the first stage of the meaningful use program, stage two requirements are so complex that only about 12 percent of eligible physicians and 40 percent of eligible hospitals have been able to comply.” The Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency tasked with providing the tools needed to test health information technology to help ensure it is functioning properly before being released to the public, and the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the meaningful use program. The Senate health committee has jurisdiction over the administration’s program that certifies that health information technology has met the necessary requirements to participate in the meaningful use program. Regardless of the requested delay, ViewMyHealthRecords.com stands ready to comply with all MU Stage III requirements to ensure patients have continued access to their health records. To learn how you can access your health records online have your healthcare provider contact ViewMyHealthRecords.com.