"Physicians will always embrace technology that can help them provide better care for their patients and foster innovation, but improvements must be made to the meaningful use program in order for those goals to be achieved," said AMA President Robert M. Wah, MD, in a news release. "We can no longer just delay the program from taking full effect. We must make the necessary changes to ensure that the meaningful use program requirements are in fact meaningful and deliver – not hinder – the intended improvements in patient care and practice efficiencies."

The blueprint outlines several ways CMS and ONC could improve meaningful use immediately and in the future.

As part of its recommendations to improve the program, the AMA is asking the administration to make optional the objectives physicians are finding most challenging. These objectives include view, download and transmit, transitions of care and secure messaging.

In addition, the AMA recommends that CMS and ONC take the opportunity with Stage 3 to make the meaningful use program less primary care centric by expanding options within the health IT objectives to meet the needs of specialists and requiring physicians to meet no more than 10 requirements.

The letter also reiterates AMA concerns with Stages 1 and 2 of the program, and offers recommendations for addressing the programs.

"The whole point of the EHR incentive program was to build an interoperable health information technology infrastructure that would allow for the routine exchange of important medical information across settings and providers and put medical decision-making tools in the hands of physicians and patients, yet that vision is not being realized and the lack of interoperability is stifling quality improvement," said Wah. "While more than 78 percent of physicians are using an EHR, thousands have not participated in the meaningful use program or attested to Stage 2, in large part because of the program's all-or-nothing approach. Physicians should not be required to meet measures that are not improving patient care or use systems that are decreasing practice efficiencies. Levying penalties unnecessarily will hinder physicians' ability to purchase and use new technologies and will hurt their ability to participate in innovative payment and delivery models that could improve the quality of care."

The coalition seems to be in agreement. In its letter to Burwell, it wrote:

"In addition to HIT interoperability challenges, existing systems also lack usability, complicating physician and provider workflows, and diverting resources away from patient care. For instance, many of the physicians have vocalized concerns that these challenges and greater administrative burdens are creating significant dissatisfaction with EHR/EMR usability; yet, their vendors are limited from addressing these concerns as they focus on meeting increasingly complex certification requirements."

Access the coalition letter here.