News: AHA calls on CMS to further reduce documentation burdens

Last week, the American Hospital Association (AHA) sent a letter to CMS suggesting a number of actions to reduce the burden of clinical documentation requirements. The changes, the AHA suggests, could be made part of CMS’ calendar year 2020 physician fee schedule proposed rule.

“The time spent documenting patient visits is time that providers cannot spend in face-to-face interaction with patients—negatively impacting patient care and provider well-being,” the AHA wrote.

Specifically, the AHA’s recommendations include:

• Remove requirements that result in providers repeating one another’s documentation
• Improve patient engagement and provider-patient interaction by allowing patients to input their information into EHR-linked systems and requiring providers to review the information with the patient
• Create policies that encourage the development of dictation technology
• Introduce meaningful payment for provider-to-provider interaction conducted through the medical record
• Clarify existing documentation requirements so that providers know what’s expected of them

While the AHA wrote that they appreciate CMS’ existing efforts to reduce documentation burdens, they believe the changes don’t go far enough to mitigate the issue.

Overall, the AHA wants CMS to “return the medical record to the dynamic patient narrative it was designed to be and a tool that supports provider-to-provider interaction, […] improve the usability of medication lists, [and] improve the security, portability, and management of patient data by testing the usability of block chain.”

Editor’s note: To read the letter from the AHA, click here. To read the accompanying news brief from AHA News, click here. To read about CMS’ recent efforts to reduce administrative burden, click here.