More than three quarters of eligible professionals have still been unable to attest to Meaningful Use, according to the Health IT Policy Committee. Federal officials reported on Feb 10 that only 3 to 4 percent of the 4,993 U.S. hospitals have not registered or participated in the MU program. The updated numbers show positive retention rates for MU with 2,275 eligible hospitals attesting for MU Stage 1 and 1,815 have also attested to MU Stage 2.
“The vast majority of eligible hospitals have achieved Meaningful Use or are making progress towards Meaningful Use,” said Dawn Heisey-Grove, public health analyst at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Clinical Innovation + Technology reports.
Despite the positive updated MU numbers, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a statement today stating the meaningful use program is still broken and penalties hinder new care models that could improve quality and lower costs.
“The program’s one-size-fits-all approach, that has not been proven to improve quality, has made it difficult for physicians to take part. The penalties physicians are facing as a result of the Meaningful Use program undermine the program’s goals and take valuable resources away from physician practices that could be spent investing in better and additional technologies and moving to alternative models of care that could improve quality and lower costs.
“They additionally make it harder for physicians to meet Meaningful Use in the future. In order to successfully attest, physicians must spend tens of thousands of dollars for tech support, software upgrades, interfaces and data exchange, often on a recurring basis.
“The AMA continues to work with the Administration to improve the Meaningful Use program and looks forward to seeing how CMS’ anticipated new rules address these issues this spring,” said the AMA.
9 out of 10 hospitals achieved MU by fiscal year 2014; however, children’s hospitals and smaller urban hospitals had the lowest MU attestation rates.
