Perhaps the biggest surprise in the proposed rules for meaningful use of health IT was the fact that physicians will not have to keep electronic progress notes to earn Medicare or Medicaid bonus payments in 2011. Now, some members of the Health IT Policy Committee, an HHS advisory panel, are second-guessing the plan.

At last week's Policy Committee meeting in Washington, Dr. Paul Tang, who co-chairs the workgroup on meaningful use, and Dr. George Hripcsak, the workgroup's other co-chairman, called the omission one of the most important "missed opportunities" for the stimulus to support better and more efficient care. They also said HHS passed on the chance to include guidelines on the substitution of generic drugs and for ordering some high-cost diagnostic tests, Federal Computer Week reports.

For details:
- check out this Federal Computer Week story

Related Articles:
HHS hints at possible 'meaningful use' changes
Meaningful use to require 5 CDS rules but not progress notes in 2011
Study Shows 96 Percent of Doctors Concerned About Losing the Unique Patient Story with Transition to Electronic Health Records