AHA urges CMS to take flexible approach to EHR meaningful use

The AHA yesterday encouraged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to eliminate its “all-or-nothing” approach to meaningful use of electronic health records, which is “overly burdensome” and not required by statute. “[W]e believe that CMS possesses the authority to eliminate the all-or-nothing approach to meaningful use and that the agency should do so by allowing providers that attest to meeting 70% of the meaningful use requirements to be designated as meaningful users,” wrote Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development. “…It is clear that the statutory definition of meaningful EHR user permits CMS to employ the more flexible approach advocated by the AHA and others.” AHA thanked CMS for flexibility in 2014 and 2015 meaningful use requirements, which supported providers in their ongoing work to adopt and use EHRs. AHA has consistently urged CMS to allow providers to implement a percentage or limited number of the meaningful use objectives and offer providers greater flexibility in meeting program requirements.