Last week, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP), called for HHS to delay the regulations implementing Stage 3 of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) incentive programs until January 1, 2017.

In March, HHS proposed rules that set forth objectives for professionals and hospitals to meet in order to achieve Stage 3 meaningful use.  The Stage 3 proposed rules specify a full year reporting period, instead of a 90-day reporting period, for most professionals and hospitals.  As with many EHR requirements, these proposed rules were met with considerable resistance from the provider community.

In calling for delay of the Stage 3 requirements, Senator Alexander cited challenges providers have implementing the new EHR technology: “Some hospitals have told me they are ‘terrified’ by the prospect of stage three. It does not help patients to makes these massive changes fast and wrong. It does help patients to do this deliberately and correctly so that hospitals and doctors embrace the changes instead of dread them.”

Senator Alexander’s concern about the EHR programs is not new.  Earlier this year, Senator Alexander announced the formation of a HELP Committee EHR Working Group “to help make the failed promise of electronic health records something that physicians and providers look forward to instead of something they endure.”

Covington Digital Health Team

Stakeholders across the healthcare, technology and communications industries seek to harness the power of data and information technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their products, solutions and services, create new and cutting-edge innovations, and achieve better outcomes for patients. Partnering with…

Stakeholders across the healthcare, technology and communications industries seek to harness the power of data and information technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their products, solutions and services, create new and cutting-edge innovations, and achieve better outcomes for patients. Partnering with lawyers who understand how the regulatory, IP, and commercial pieces of the digital health puzzle fit together is essential. Covington offers unsurpassed breadth and depth of expertise and experience concerning the legal, regulatory, and policy issues that affect digital health products and services. To learn more, click here.