Sen. Hatch Calls For Pausing Meaningful Use Program

Trying to soften the sting of his remarks by iterating that he does not want to see progress stalled on health IT adoption, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch explained that the federal government cannot afford to spend money on programs that are not working.

“It would seem to me that we have an opportunity to push the pause button,” and take the pulse of meaningful use, Hatch said Wednesday morning during a Finance Committee hearing.

Doing so would provide more time to hold providers and vendors to high standards, Hatch added, saying “perhaps meaningful use has set the bar too low.”

Commenting that Farzad Mostashari’s, MD, bowtie “is a beauty,” Hatch asked the national coordinator for health IT if the option of taking a breather makes sense from his purview.