Is MU Really Doomed?

A lot of knowledgeable folks in the health IT industry have been saying for months now that the Meaningful Use (MU) program, in its current form, is in big trouble. The chatter began at the beginning of the year when Stage 2 requirements proved difficult for providers to fulfill. It escalated when CMS released its final “modifications” rule to Stage 2 and basically ignored pleas from the industry to change the attestation period from one year to 90 days. The recent mass exodus of key personnel from the ONC, including Lygeia Ricciardi, Director of the Office of Consumer eHealth; Joy Pritts, Chief Privacy Officer; Judy Murphy, CNO; Doug Fridsma, Chief Scientist; Jacob Reider, Deputy National Coordinator; and the partial departure of Karen DeSalvo, National Coordinator, have only served to stoke the fire. In fact, many wonder if MU will be able to survive this monumental transition.

Prominent health system CIOs, such as Intermountain’s Marc Probst and Georgia Regents’ Charles Enicks, have been quoted as saying that the federal government should “declare MU victory and move on.” From their perspective, the program has accomplished what it was designed to do (drive increased EHR adoption) because now its prescribed checklists are simply getting in the way of progress.

Probst also told Healthcare Informatics that “2015 is going to be a bad year for MU, and the odds are slim that organizations are going to meet the requirements now that October 1 has passed.” According to Probst, if providers don’t successfully attest for Stage 2 MU this year, they’ll be subject to penalties anyway. As a result, he believes many providers will begin to shift their focus from MU to initiatives like ICD-10 and data security instead. In his opinion, providers are in more control of the key variables related to these projects, and the penalties for data breaches and ICD-10 noncompliance are much harsher than those for MU failure.

Probst definitely has a point, but according to our annual health IT trends survey, the predicted shift away from MU won’t be occurring in 2015. For the fifth year in a row, EHR Meaningful Use topped our list as the health IT initiative being given top priority in terms of budget/resource allocation and provider focus. However, to Probst’s credit, EHR Meaningful Use just barely edged out two other health IT initiatives — you guessed it, PHI Security and ICD-10 compliance. In the coming year, all three of these initiatives will compete for provider mindshare. Industry dynamics and reimbursement pressures will likely determine which way priorities sway. However, for now, MU continues to be the key factor driving the IT initiatives of most healthcare providers. As it turns out, MU ain’t dead just yet.