A Welcome Extension, For Most

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 9, 2013

After months of physicians, hospitals and IT groups calling for more time to complete Meaningful Use, the federal government responded. Although not everyone is pleased.

On Friday, Dec. 6, hours before the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator announced the new timeline, two stakeholders speaking at a CMS eHealth conference made the case for an extension. Whether or not they knew of the pending change, they may be breathing a sigh of relief now, on behalf of their customers and members.

One concern, said Robert Tennant, a senior policy advisory at the Medical Group Management Association, is that “Everything is happening at the same time” – ICD-10, Medicaid expansion, insurance exchange, ACOs and value-based pilots, and Meaningful Use.

“We need to evaluable the first two stages,” Tennant said of designing the policy for Meaningful Use stage 3.