Health IT Now, along with with eight other organizations, some of them health IT vendors, are calling on Congress to stay the course on Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program.

Health IT Now describes itself as a broad-based coalition of patient groups, provider organizations, employers and payers.

The coalition, along with eight other organizations made their pleas in a Dec. 7 letter to Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

The organizations signing the letter besides Health IT Now are:

• Apervita
• athenahealth, Inc.
• Intel
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• New Directions Technology Consulting, LLC
• Oracle
• United Spinal Association
• Verizon

"We write to urge you to oppose any legislative changes to the meaningful use program, including delays in the timing of Stage 3, that do not  also include reforms to improve the interoperable use of health information technology," they wrote. "Delay without reform would rob taxpayers and patients of cost savings while doing absolutely nothing to make the program work well for overburdened doctors and hospitals."

The American Medical Association and 111 other national and state medical societies called  for delay of Stage 3 in an earlier letter to leadership. So has Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander, who was copied on this most recent letter.

Read the letter.

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