e-Records Group Lobbies CMS

The Electronic Health Record Association is asking the federal government to discount patient-level data when assessing quality measures for EHRs, at least for a pilot program in which the data will be submitted electronically.

The EHR trade group, according to a news release, says it has raised with Dr. Donald M. Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "serious concerns about the complexity and overhead of reporting discrete patient-level data for quality measures, rather than summary data, as is the case today."

The group is responding to proposed 2012 CMS rules for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System, some of which affect electronic health records.

Meanwhile, the group praised CMS's plan to align EHR incentive program quality measures and reporting approaches with the Medicare Physician Quality Reporting System. It also supports continuing the current way in which health-care providers attest to their EHR system's ability to meet quality measures, a requirement for earning financial incentives from CMS.

"In the current environment, providers must understand and comply with several new programs, so it's important that elements that are proven and operational be maintained in order to minimize uncertainty and maximize the value of prior technology investments," says Leigh C. Burchell, vice president of government affairs for Allscripts and chair of the EHR Association's public policy workgroup.

The association is an independent organization within the Health Information and Management Systems Society, an industry group based in Chicago.