Senate panel will push HHS to delay Stage 3 MU rules

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is asking to delay Stage 3 meaningful-use rules, its chairman, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), said during a news conference Thursday.

This will be one of several recommendations his committee will make to the Obama administration in a push to expand the use of electronic health records, which some providers say are costly and time-consuming.

Alexander's staff and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have been meeting with committee members' staff weekly and meeting regularly with experts and administration officials to relay their policy suggestions. 

The directives are intentionally being drafted as regulations that can be implemented by HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell via rule-making versus legislation. This ensures they can be adopted quickly, Alexander said.

If legislation is ultimately needed to get some of the recommendations implemented, they would likely be rolled into the Senate's companion bill to the House's 21st Century Cures legislation, a healthcare innovation bill that Alexander expects to be drafted and voted on early next year.

“We want to keep going forward (with the adoption of EHRs), no one wants to turn back,” Alexander said.