Andy Slavitt offers sympathy, no details on future EHR requirements

by: Roy Edroso Mar 3, 2016

I feel you, CMS Acting Adminsitrator Andy Slavitt basically told providers who struggle with CMS' meaningful use requirements on March 2. But his sympathetic comments at the annual meeting of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) meeting in Las Vegas did not come with details as to how he would make adoption and advancement of electronic health records (EHR) technology easier or more effective.

Slavitt's comments were reported on CMS' own blog shortly after his HIMSS address.

Slavitt admited that while "we’ve all made a great start ... we’re still at a stage where technology often hurts, instead of helping, physicians provide better patient care."

In fact, Slavitt read aloud some provider complaints about EHR life, including "to order aspirin takes eight clicks on the computer" and "it does put too much of a burden on us and it does take away our time from caring for patients." "I have hundreds of these if you're intersted," Slavitt added.

As to solutions, though, Slavitt was vague. He suggested CMS would "close the gulf between our public policy work and what’s happening in the reality of patient care," "stop measuring clicks [and] focus on allowing technology to become a tool" and "favor 'pull' over 'push' incentives ... to let outcomes rather than activities drive the agenda." But he didn't say how.

Slavitt is probably keeping his powder dry until a proposed rule based on MACRA is released that will better explain the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), the replacement for meaningful use and other CMS programs. "We are a few months away from having details available" on that, he told the audience.

Blog Tags: CMS, EHR incentive bonus, electronic health records, proposed rules, SGR

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