CMS to consider flexibility for meaningful use

Patrick Conway, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services deputy administrator for innovation and quality and chief medical officer, this week indicated that the agency will consider giving hospitals more flexibility in meeting the meaningful use criteria in the Electronic Health Records Incentive Program to better align with recent proposed changes to physician requirements, according to press reports. The AHA has long advocated for increased flexibility, most recently in a March letter to Conway. “Given the complexity and level of difficulty in meeting all of the meaningful use criteria, the all-or-nothing approach – in which failure to meet any individual part of an objective, or missing a threshold by a small amount, leads to overall failure in meeting meaningful use – is overly burdensome,” wrote Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for policy analysis and development. Lawmakers also are interested in increasing flexibility under meaningful use. Six senators, led by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, have asked CMS for comment on their draft legislation, which would direct the agency to consider a hospital meeting 75% of the requirements to have achieved meaningful use.