MGMA Applauds CMS' Move on Meaningful Use

On Jan. 29, the Englewood, Colo.-based Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released a statement, attributed to Anders Gilberg, the association's senior vice president, government affairs, of praise for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), for its modification of key aspects of the meaningful use program under the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act.

According to Gilberg, "The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is encouraged by the announcement today from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the agency's plan to modify aspects of the meaningful use program. MGMA has been a strong advocate for CMS to increase program flexibility and shorten the 2015 EHR [electronic health record] reporting period from a year to 90 days. We urge CMS to expedite the release of its 90-day reporting provision to give physician practices the confidence they need to continue participating in this program. The number of eligible professionals sucessfully attesting for Stage 2 of the program in 2014 was sharply down from those attesting for Stage 1, making significant changes to meaningful use essential."

MGMA represents more than 33,000 medical group practice administrators across the U.S.

Another medical group association, the American Medical Group Association, concurred with MGMA. In a statement, Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D. CEO of AMGA, said:  "AMGA is very pleased with CMS’ announcement that it intends to make these critical changes to the EHR incentive program. We have long advocated for this change in both comments to CMS, support for a legislative proposal that would have made this modification if CMS had not taken action, and in discussions with members of Congress. These changes will be enormously helpful to our members who have pioneered the use of electronic health records. AMGA has been active with both CMS and the Congress in advocating for these changes, and we look forward to continued work with policymakers to ensure these changes are implemented this year.”