Dive Brief:
- The leaders of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions announced Thursday that it will push to delay implementation of the Stage 3 meaningful-use rules, which are currently slated to take effect in 2017.
- The recommendation will be among several the committee makes in an effort to expand the adoption of electronic health records.
- The request to delay Stage 3 rules aligns with similar pushes from groups including the Medical Group Management Association and the American Medical Association.
Dive Insight:
The primary concern being voiced about Stage 3 is the degree to which providers will have to depend on others to meet the requirements--that they send electronic summaries for 50% of the patients they refer, receive summaries for 40% of the patients referred to them, and that they reconcile old patient data with new data for 80% of such patients.
As noted by Modern Healthcare, the committee's directives are being drafted as regulations that can be implemented by HHS via rule-making rather than legislation, in order to move quickly. However, if legislation is required, the committee would aim to have the directives included in the Senate's companion bill to the House's 21st Century Cures legislation, which it expects to be drafted in early 2016.