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More than 80 physician organizations, in general, support the objectives and vision outlined in the initial proposal of a workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee to define meaningful use of electronic health records, according to a comment letter to federal officials.

"We are concerned, however, that the committee's timeline to meet the proposed measures is too aggressive given that we continue to lack the necessary infrastructure, standards and systems," the physician groups wrote.

The American Medical Association joined the other organizations in sending the letter to David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology. They called for a reasonable, scaleable and flexible starting point for EHR adoption that takes into account the ability of a solo practitioner versus a large group practice.  

The organizations noted several challenges to achieving meaningful use. These include the lack of certifiable EHRs for certain specialties, and the 12 to 18 months it takes a practice to move from initial adoption to robust use of an EHR. Further, physicians must comply with migrating to the HIPAA 5010 transactions and ICD-10 code sets during the same time they seek to meaningfully use EHRs.

Nine pages of recommendations attached to the comment letter included a proposal for a five-phase set of specifications to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. "Our proposal is aimed at ensuring that the 'bar' is not set too high or too low; one that is reasonable and ensures that all eligible physicians in all size practices and specialties are able to take advantage of the incentives specified in ARRA," according to the organizations.

The recommendations are available at ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/472/meaningful-use-attachment.pdf.

--Joseph Goedert