The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology of Regulations, which is related to documentation of electronic health record (EHR) systems and rules for Medicare and Medicaid programs, has included the final rules as a joint release with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) late Tuesday.

It was mentioned in HCI reports that many health IT leaders showed confidence in the flexibilities to the program provided by CMS. These IT leaders gathered in Chicago for the Health IT Summit in Chicago, which was sponsored by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation. Later, it was announced in the summit that CMS has announced a 60-day public comment period to smoothen the progress of Stage 3 of the EHR Incentive Programs.

Naomi Levinthal, consultant, research and insights at The Advisory Board Company (Washington D.C.), said the fact that Stage 3 is not set in stone could trigger a response from CMS about the feedback they are getting from industry and lawmakers to delay the start date of Stage 3.

"They essentially said they will continue on with the proposal of Stage 3, with everything starting in 2018, but they said finalized with air quotes, which allows providers to have another 60-day comment period", Levinthal added.

John Halamka, health IT luminary and the CIO for the Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said in a statement that it is yet to be seen how the comment period on the EHR Incentive Programs final rule will be used. He said the fact that final rules of CMS are not yet ready are not surprising to him.

"You might see a middle ground in order to onboard providers to these more aggressive measures. It sounds like they heard loud and clear that some of these measures were way too high as proposed. It's unusual in that CMS really has never caved to the type of pressures that industry and lawmakers have put on them before. Think back to 2014, we had the same type of requests to delay Stage 2, and they went forward with it with just quick modifications to let some providers meet meaningful use in a different way," she says.