Dive Brief:

• Originally introduced during the last session of Congress, the Flex-IT Act—​which most notably reduced the Stage 2 Meaningful Use reporting period from a full year down to three months—was put back in play on Tuesday by one of its original co-sponsors, Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), according to a blog post on her website. Rep. Ron Wind (D-WI) is the bill's co-sponsor, showing a united front across the aisle on the measure.​
• "There is a tremendous need for our healthcare providers to have flexibility in meeting HHS' stiff deadlines, and this is precisely why I am reintroducing the Flex-IT Act,” she wrote. "The time constraints imposed on doctors and hospitals are inflexible and simply unmanageable—and this is evident by the dreadful Stage 2 Meaningful Use attestation numbers released by CMS late last year."
• Reaction from the healthcare industry was pretty much unanimous, with representatives from the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and Medical Group Management Association all chiming in with their praise for the bill.

Dive Insight:

In an age when Congress argues over the weather, the Flex-IT act is a genuine bipartisan no-brainer.

The HHS rule mandating a 365-day Stage 2 reporting period for Meaningful Use—a term that HHS hasn't even really defined as yet—was hastily written and even more hastily published. 

Obviously, if you couldn't tell by the response, the vast majority of stakeholders in the healthcare industry are behind the 90-day reporting period proposed in the bill. If this idea needed an exclamation point, it was provided by a joint statement from all the aforementioned organizations released through CHIME.

"We commend the leadership demonstrated by a bipartisan group of House Members on this critically important issue," said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. "With such across-the-isle support, Congress has underscored how fundamental this program is to the future of healthcare in the US. While CHIME remains committed to the success of Meaningful Use, and to making sure improved patient care is the program's lasting legacy, we believe significant changes are needed to address increased dissatisfaction with EHRs and growing disenchantment with the program. This bill, if passed, would begin that much-needed course correction."

That's polite lobbyist-speak expressing the sentiment, "If this whole issue wasn't so tragically stupid, it would be a joke. Fix it, please."