I’ll admit that I was out of town when the meaningful use stage 3 rule was released. (Side Note: Why do they always release the rule on a Friday right before the weekend?) So, unlike many people I wasn’t deep in the regulatory details of meaningful use stage 3.
Since I missed the initial release of MU stage 3, I like to read the commentary coming from other people to sort of triangulate some of the most common issues and challenges people have with the new rule. However, what’s been fascinating for me in almost all of these writeups is that people are tired of meaningful use.
Over and over I’ve read of people who haven’t read the rules, people who are putting off reading the rules, and people who’ve shunned meaningful use all together. In fact, I’ve been shocked by the number of people who are just “over” meaningful use. They’re ready to move on from it and move on to something new.
Many people might misinterpret this apathy with meaningful use as a dislike for technology in general. In most of the cases I’ve mentioned that couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the people who are tired with meaningful use are all about implementing technology in healthcare. They’re just tired of the government regulating that they do it.
What’s not clear to me is whether this apathy is deep enough that hospitals will not actually go after the meaningful use dollars or not. The EHR incentive money is very real for many hospitals and the penalties are a big deal as well. A decision to not do meaningful use is a really big one and the financial incentives and penalties might still win out. However, you can be sure that whoever’s working on the MU stage 3 project won’t do it with as much gusto as they did MU stage 1.
