A call for relaxing meaningful use critiera

Quite a few groups have criticized the draft meaningful use requirements as being too complex and nearly impossible to comply with. Now, the Health IT Policy Committee has called for relaxation of the standards that providers must meet to receive EHR incentive funding.

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As it stands, providers would have to perform 25 different measures in the areas of care coordination, privacy, quality and safety, etc. But in their recommendation submitted to David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT, the group asked that the government abandon an “all or nothing” approach and allow providers to defer up to five measures from 2011 to 2013.

However, the group said certain measures should remain mandatory, such as e-prescribing and computerized order entry.
(CMS is accepting public comment on the meaningful use rules through mid-March and is expected to publish its final rule in late spring.)

What do you think? Is the criteria currently far too complex?