For the first time in two years, David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, was not in attendance at the popular annual ONC town hall meeting, held Tuesday at the HIMSS conference in Orlando. He did, however, give a keynote speech on Wednesday.

Blumenthal recently announced he would be stepping down from his position at ONC this spring. His second-in-command, Deputy Farzad Mostashari, MD, led the town hall meeting at HIMSS11, saying that, “with David’s departure, this is a time to analyze if we’re on the right track.”

[Read also: Blumenthal to leave ONC.] 

“Most would agree, we’re on the right track,” he said, “but we need to keep moving ahead and that’s what we intend to do. We need to constantly focus on improving and doing a better job."

“In a sense, David is now handing the mantle back to us,” Mostashari said. “We, together, have to carry the ball forward. Let us know when policies keep you from being successful.”

Mostashari brought up the 800-pound gorilla in the room: meaningful use. “We understand your concerns about meaningful use Stage 2,” he said. “We hear you, and we will work with you to find solutions.”

A town hall attendee asked the federal panel, “Will you delay meaningful use?” Adding, “My CEO thinks you will.”

The crowd of more than 200 waited with bated breath. Tony Trenkle, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of e-Health Standards and Services stood up and simply said, “no.”

Trenkle also fielded a question on the potential disruption of funding for the Medicare and Medicaid health IT adoption incentive plan. Congress has been toying with defunding the program as part of a budget battle. Trenkle said CMS is not able to comment on political issues. But he was able to say: “We’re committed to moving forward with what is in place now.”

According to Mostashari, the single biggest investment ONC made this year with the HITECH funding was in establishing the regional extension centers (RECs). “There are 62 of them that cover every part of the country. It’s an offer of help. It’s an open hand,” he said.

Currently ONC has registered 47 primary care providers for help from the RECs. This should help improve 70 million Americans' healthcare, he said.

“We’re proud of that, but boy we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mostashari said. “It’s not enough to sign them up. We’ve got to get them to meaningful use.”

[Read also: Regional extension centers offer best practices from the trenches.]

Follow Diana Manos on Twitter @DManos_IT_News.