The Society Comments on Proposed Plan for HIT Adoption

On March 15, 2010, the Society provided written comments to Charlene Frizzera, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding plans for health information technology (HIT) system adoption. The proposed rule is “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program,” published in the Federal Register on January 13.

In its comment letter (PDF, 164K) , the Society applauded the intent of this proposed rule: to implement the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that provide incentive payments to eligible professionals and eligible hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs that adopt and meaningfully use certified electronic health record technology.

The Society noted that this rule represents a significant step to modernize our nation’s health information infrastructure and promote the adoption and meaningful use of interoperable health information technology and qualified electronic health records. However, we believe that the timeframe is overly ambitious, despite CMS’ three-stage implementation plan, and does not accurately reflect the health care industry’s readiness.

The Society recommended that CMS carefully consider the impact of the clinical measure reporting requirements on specialty practices, as many of the clinical measures outlined in the proposed rule are not salient to specialists such as electrophysiologists.

The letter closed by noting that the Society looks forward to working with CMS to attain the goal that eligible physicians and hospitals will be meaningful users in Medicare’s electronic health record system within ten years.