Government Handouts for Electronic Health Records: Standards Lowered to Ensure Money Keeps Flowing

We recently noted that, halfway through the year, only four hospitals and 50 physicians have achieved the federal government’s goals for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRS). The federal government has a goal of spending $30 billion to induce hospitals and physicians to adopt EHRs, and it still has about $8 billion to spend. In order to ensure the money keeps flowing, standards have been lowered:

The new rule, released May 20 and slated to be published in the Federal Register May 23, would enable providers to use the 2011 edition of certified electronic health record technology for Stage 1 or Stage 2 in 2014. They would have the option to attest to the 2013 definition of Meaningful Use core and menu items and use the 2013 definition of clinical quality measures. (FierceHealth EMR)

So, hospitals and physician practices which received handouts in previous years are pretty much guaranteed to receive a handout this year, just by resubmitting the old paperwork.

Comments (12)

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  1. Mary says:

    So we’re giving them more money for doing nothing? Awesome.

  2. Steve says:

    I was a little miffed the first time I found out about this, and now we’re making it even easier to get money for doing nothing? That’s not cool.

  3. Lacey says:

    You know, in school turning in something you’ve turned in previously is called plagiarism. Just saying.

  4. Trent says:

    I’ve heard of “close enough for government work,” but this…this seems too close.

  5. Jay says:

    “Standards Lowered to Ensure Money Keeps Flowing”

    That’s always a headline that you want to see in the news. Real quality work.

  6. John R. Graham says:

    Thank you for your comments. You will not be surprised to learn that the “stakeholders” are cheering the announcement.

  7. Rohit Sharma says:

    I also heard about goverment work about health but you give full access to goverment work.You can get some best gyms in gurgaon for your health.