DeSalvo has been barnstorming the country to listen to providers and relay information. More education is needed, such as helping providers fill out the proper fields for a particular format, for example. Or in getting patients signed up and engaged with the EHR, particularly with the secure messaging or view, download and transmit requirements.
That's why DeSalvo disagrees with critics who have charged that the difficulties providers have had in transition from the less-intensive Stage 1 to the more-intensive Stage 2 is indicative of a problem in the program.
“Sometimes providers need more time to optimize and have a chance to know all the functionalities that their system has. And that doesn't necessarily happen overnight,” she said. The agency is hoping to improve its certification processes, but some of the transition pains are simply the market working, she suggested.
“It may very well be that some providers will decide the product they started with isn't the one they want to stick with, which I think is—in any kind of technological marketplace—going to be true,” she said. “We went through it with TVs and phones; this one is just a really important, high-stakes (area) of our lives, which is health.”
The CMS released a proposed rule in May that would provide waivers to some providers scheduled to meet Stage 2 requirements, in part, to address vendor delays in providing software to their provider clients. Both the American Medical Association and the Medical Group Management Association have called on the CMS and HHS to add even more flexibility to the program for Stage 2 and beyond.
A full interview with DeSalvo will be featured in an upcoming issue of Modern Healthcare magazine.
Follow Darius Tahir on Twitter: @dariustahir
