Feb 18 2010
The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) applauds Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) for her efforts to assure fairness in payment of electronic medical record (EMR) incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Popularly known as the "stimulus bill," ARRA included incentive payments designed to stimulate widespread adoption of EMRs and to reward medical groups and other providers that were early adopters of this technology. Recently, however, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed regulation that would have denied some of the nation's finest health care providers from receiving significant EMR incentive payments.
Senator Stabenow, along with 18 of her Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressing their deep concern and disappointment over CMS's proposed regulation. Senator Stabenow wrote that the proposed rule was narrowly drawn and contrary to clear congressional intent.
The letter went on to say that excluding provider-based entities "would penalize some of the nation's pioneers of EMR use," including Henry Ford Health System, the University of Michigan Medical School and Faculty Practice, the Billings Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Innovis Health, and Geisinger Health System, among many others. Senator Stabenow asked Secretary Sebelius to instruct CMS to follow clear congressional intent in the final version of rule making to ensure that provider-based entity physicians were eligible for EMR incentive payments.
Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., AMGA President and CEO, commented, "AMGA commends Senator Stabenow for her leadership on this issue and her efforts to ensure that some of the country's finest healthcare providers qualify to receive EMR incentive payments as the Congress originally intended. Many of the medical groups that will benefit from Senator Stabenow's efforts have been champions in the adoption of EMRs and should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts."
Source: American Medical Group Association