Dear Senators:
The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (the “Alliance”) represents more than 100,000
specialty physicians from 13 specialty and subspecialty societies. The Alliance is deeply
committed to improving access to specialty medical care through the advancement of
sound health policy. For this reason, the undersigned organizations are pleased to lend
their support to the “EHR Regulatory Relief Act.”
Since the fall of 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has
promised to change the Meaningful Use (MU) program in response to strong complaints
and concerns from the provider community. In the recent rule implementing the
Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), CMS did make some changes to
what was the MU program but, unfortunately, those changes provide little substantive
relief for physicians.
Most importantly, the agency will maintain its all-or-nothing approach to EHR
implementation measurement, which has been one of the most problematic aspects of
MU implementation to date. For these reasons, we strongly support the EHR
Regulatory Relief Act’s proposal to move away from the 100%-or-nothing approach to
MU. In addition, we appreciate the extension of the hardship exemption and
codification of the 90-day reporting period.
…
Read full letter here
