A bipartisan group has introduced a bill in the U.S. House that would apparently let the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)  ease the burden on hospitals (apparently hospitals only) of Meaningful Use rules involving Medicare recipients.

Called an effort to “amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to reduce the volume of future electronic health-related significant hardship requests,” the bill would  only affect  providers  still subject to the government’s electronic health record (EHR) incentive program, known as ‘Meaningful Use,”’  Robert Tennant, senior policy adviser to the Medical Group Management Association, told Medscape.

CMS no longer requires individual physicians to participate in the Meaningful Use program, which for them has been subsumed by the Quality Payment Program (QPP) of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And, Mr. Tennant said, physicians   eligible to participate in the Medicaid portion of Meaningful Use are not penalized if they don’t participate.

He explained that the legislation might ease their Meaningful Use reporting, but any hardship exceptions would not affect them.

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