House Leaders to HHS: Halt and Fix the EHR Incentive Program

healthdatamanagement.com - by Joseph Goedert - October 5, 2012

Four powerful members of the U.S. House and Representatives have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calling for an immediate halt to the electronic health records meaningful use incentive program, which they consider to be weak.

. . . The House members contend the meaningful use program is not meeting its goals, has wasted $10 billion and may do more harm than good. What follows is text of their Oct. 4 letter to Sebelius:

“We are writing to express serious concerns about the final Electronic Health Record Stage 2 Meaningful Use Program rules recently issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. We believe that the Stage 2 rules are, in some respects, weaker than the proposed Stage 1 regulations released in 2009. The result will be a less efficient system that squanders taxpayer dollars and does little, if anything, to improve outcomes for Medicare.

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