On Jan. 14, the Chicago-based American Medical Association (AMA) submitted formal comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in response to the release of the Health IT Policy Committee’s proposal for Stage 3 of meaningful use under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

“The AMA shares the administration’s goal of widespread EHR [electronic health record] adoption nd use, but we again stress sour continuing concern that the meaningful use program is moving forward without a comprehensive evaluation of previous stages to resolve existing problems, AMA board chair Steven J. Stack, M.D., said in a press release. “A full evaluation of past stages and more flexible program requirements will help physicians in different specialties and practice arrangements successfully adopt and use EHRs.”

In a letter to Farzad Mostashari, M.D., the National Coordinator for Health IT, the AMA outlined the following five concerns and recommendations: that “an evaluation process” is lacking; that a “100 percent pass rate is not the right approach”; that “one size does not fit all, and program requirements should be made more flexible; that “usability of certified EHRs should be addressed”; and that “health IT infrastructure barriers should be resolved.”

The full comment letter is available at http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/washington/stage-3-meaningful-use-electronic-health-records-comment-letter-14jan2013.pdf