End penalties for not meeting Meaningful Use (MU) requirements for Electronic Health Records (EHR).

The promise of EHR was that a patient's health records would be accessible from any medical practice, eliminating the need for duplicate tests and data entry. The data would be used by researchers to find clusters of cancer, disease outbreaks and drug abuse. The problem is that infrastructure for data sharing without undue burden is not ready. The first 2 stages of MU just added to the problems of duplicate tests, patient interrogation and data entry, while providing few if any benefits to patient care. One study showed an 8 doctor ophthalmology practice lost 16.9% of patient visits over 4 years due to implementing an EHR to meet MU. The president should use his executive powers to suspend penalties related to MU until acceptable data sharing infrastructures are in place.