Physician Groups Warming Up to HIEs

Stage 2 MU requirements, recently released and delayed by a year, are not without detractors. On Thursday, four Republican U.S. House members sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking her to halt MU incentive payments, in part, because of interoperability concerns. The letter states, "We believe that the Stage 2 rules are, in some respects weaker than the proposed Stage 1 regulations released in 2009."

The letter is signed by Dave Camp, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Wally Herger, Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, Fred Upton, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Joe Pitts, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. 

It's not clear if the federal certification requirement Marchiboda referred to alleviates the concerns expressed by the congressmen.

In his address at the Bipartisan Policy Committee's event discussing its survey results, Farzah Mostashari MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said, "Stage 2 is you start sharing. Over the past two years, we worked really hard to make it possible to have standards, consensus standards."