Doctors will soon be paying even more for paper.

Despite resistance from the medical community and both political parties, the Obama administration will begin enforcing new rules that require doctors to use electronic health records, under penalty of fees.

Amidst calls from Congress to delay implementation, the administration is emphasizing that the rules have been revised to be less strict.

The Hill reports that health officials say that providers will be required to meet fewer standards and be allowed to apply for hardship exemptions from the mandates.

Read: EHR use more than doubles

The rule is also subject to a 90-day comment period, during which providers can voice concerns.

"Most importantly we are seeking additional public comments and plan for active engagement of stakeholders so we take time to get broad input on how to improve these programs over time," said Dr. Patrick Conway of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

But Republicans on Capitol Hill are voicing opposition to the rules nonetheless, saying the government is imposing rules without understanding their effect on the health care system.

Read: Cyber thieves target UCLA health system

“The administration has a tin ear,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, the chairman of the Senate’s health committee, said in a statement Tuesday. “They’ve missed a golden opportunity to develop bipartisan support in Congress... Instead, they’ve rushed ahead with a rule against the advice of some of the nation’s leading medical institutions and physicians.”

But the Obama administration insists that it's time to finally make the adoption of EHRs universal.

The president has been pushing for wider use of EHRs since the first months of his presidency, when incentives for providers that adopted EHR were included in the HITECH Act of 2009, part of the stimulus package.

Medical advocacy groups and some members of Congress are saying that the problem is that many EHR systems simply don't work well, and that doctors often can't talk about it.

A bipartisan group in the Senate is working on a bill focused on "gag clauses" that vendors often demand of providers. Such contract stipulations prevent doctors from publicly discussing problems they've had with their EHR systems.

“If you have a product which just does not work, the provider can’t tell anybody about that,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R- Louis., told National Journal last week. “And so you have taxpayer-subsidized products basically—because people are getting such heavy subsidies to purchase them—which don’t work, but no one can know it.”

Robert Wergin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said the administration should demand more of vendors. “We believe this is the fault of the vendors and their lack of accountability while reaping huge profits from the HITECH act,” he said in a statement. “Vendors, not providers, must be held fiscally accountable for not yet achieving an appropriate level of interoperability.”

Instant Insights /

Doctors must adopt electronic health records or pay fees

More From HR Executive

Related Stories

Recommended For You