Dingell Grills HHS/CMS Officials On HIT Bonus Payments, AMA Registers Concerns

The author of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) grilled HHS officials about the law’s implementation at a lengthy hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, focusing on the aggressive time line set out in the rule to certify electronic health records systems (EHR) and urging HHS to set up the accreditation process as quickly as possible. Implementation of EHR requirements is viewed as a foundation for health reform.

While the health IT incentive program begins in January, a permanent certification program for HIT systems doesn’t kick off until 2012, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Emeritus John Dingell (D-MI) pointed out. The National Coordinator for Health IT, David Blumenthal, and Tony Trenkle, the director of e-health standards and services at CMS, responded that a recent proposed rule will set up a temporary certification process until the permanent one is up and running and that providers will be able to employ any systems that are approved under the temporary process once the permanent certification system comes online. The HIT systems will, however, be subject to recertification, they said. Blumenthal reluctantly agreed that “the lack of certified EHR technology has the potential to hinder our progress and discourage physicians from participating” in the incentive program, under questioning from Dingell.

Dingell also suggested that if eligible physicians and other providers “don’t know what systems will pass the test they will be slow to go out and buy it.”

“I don’t think that is going to happen, but yes, that’s correct,” Blumenthal said.

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