AMA, Medical Societies Call for Pause in Meaningful-use Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Medical Assoc. (AMA) and 41 medical societies have urged the federal government to pause the final stages of its meaningful-use program in light of pivotal changes to Medicare. The coalition of physician organizations believe that locking in stage-3 rules for the meaningful-use program would be an unwise step that undermines the implementation of Medicare payment reforms.


In letters delivered to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, the physician organizations note that the proposed stage-3 regulation was developed prior to and without consideration of the changes enacted by the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Given the vital role of the Meaningful Use program in the reformed payment systems introduced by MACRA, proceeding with the proposed stage-3 rules threatens to impede the healthcare delivery innovations Congress sought to promote when it passed the law.

“There is growing bipartisan recognition in Congress that the direction of the meaningful-use program needs to be reassessed in light of usability and interoperability challenges with electronic-health-record [EHR] systems,” said AMA President Dr. Steven Stack. “Poorly performing systems that do not facilitate the seamless exchange of data would severely undermine the ability of the health system to support the implementation of the payment reforms outlined in MACRA.”


The AMA believes that pausing stage 3 at this time will provide the opportunity to evaluate the environment and work with the administration to implement the needed changes to the meaningful-use program currently under consideration.

“The AMA wants the meaningful-use program to succeed. Pausing to reassess stage-3 rules will not stop or delay progress with EHRs,” said Dr. Stack. “On the contrary, we firmly believe a temporary period of re-evaluation will help move the program forward and drive innovation and adoption.”