AMA calls for change in interoperability measurements

The American Medical Association and 36 specialty medical associations urged the Administration today to rethink the way it measures the interoperability of electronic health records. The coalition of physician and medical organizations believes the current direction will require physicians to spend too much time meeting measures that will do little to make electronic health records valuable to patients and medical practices.

In letters delivered today to Andrew Slavitt, the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Karen DeSalvo, the national coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the physician organizations said regulators should toss out measures that focus on quantity of records and instead focus on achieving interoperability and care coordination goals. The comment letter is in response to a request for information on assessing interoperability under the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the bipartisan payment reform bill that became law last year.