The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has responded to a letter from Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives criticizing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the way it is implementing the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to incentivize healthcare providers to adopt electronic recordkeeping.
The letter suggested that HHS rethink and change its strategic direction for electronic health record (EHR) implementation, and suspend financial incentive payments to healthcare providers complying with meaningful use (MU) requirements. The letter, dated October 4, was sent to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from chairmen of the House Committee on Ways and Means and its subcommittee on health and the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its subcommittee on health.
In its reply, HIMSS stated that it opposes all the recommendations made by the Congressmen. It cited statistics from both the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and its research subsidiary, HIMSS Analytics, as proof that hospitals have been making the conversion from paper-based to electronic medical records at a steady pace since the federal incentive program began in 2011.
