Contact: Katie Glenn, kglenn@acc.org, 202-375-6472

WASHINGTON (Oct 06, 2015) -

A statement from American College of Cardiology President Kim Allan Williams Sr., M.D., FACC, regarding the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to align all three Stages of Meaningful Use:

"The American College of Cardiology has concerns about today's announcement by CMS to align all three Stages of Meaningful Use as this does not account for the reality of the situation faced by the medical community working every day to implement the Meaningful Use Program and to improve care for their patients. These concerns have been voiced fervently and consistently through comment letters from across the House of Medicine," said American College of Cardiology President Kim Allan Williams Sr., M.D., FACC.

"The ACC is a longtime supporter of electronic health records as a way to improve the quality of patient care. While we applaud CMS for finalizing programmatic changes to the 2015-2017 reporting years that should ease the difficulties providers face when attempting to meet Meaningful Use requirements, the decision to combine Meaningful Use into one single stage and finalize the program requirements at this time remains difficult to implement. Many of the requirements for Stage 2 proved unattainable. Large numbers of providers either haven't met them or, after trying and failing, have given up. That is why it is vital that CMS consider participation data from the current stage to see what is working and what isn't before outlining an upcoming stage. We cannot establish a long-term health care program that does not take into account what we can feasibly attain in the short-term, transitional period. The ACC looks forward to continued work with CMS to establish how the Meaningful Use program will fit into the new Merit-Based Incentives Program (MIPS) slated for 2017."

The American College of Cardiology is a 49,000-member medical society that is the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team. The mission of the College is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College operates national registries to measure and improve care, provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications. For more information, visit www.acc.org.

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