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The federal electronic health-record incentive program has produced too few benefits for the cost involved and imposed overly harsh mandates on providers, senators of both parties said Tuesday during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. The program started in 2009 by giving providers and hospitals cash in exchange for using EHR systems. Its goal was to improve care by moving data seamlessly through the healthcare system, but, “The evidence suggests these goals haven't been reached,” said Committee Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). (Tahir, 3/17)

Federal regulatory efforts to create a unique identifier system for medical devices has raised concerns that incorporating such data on insurance claims will add yet another stumbling block to healthcare's implementation of electronic health-record systems. As a result, “I think the whole process is going to go better if we're very thoughtful about starting with UDI cases where the clinical benefits and the administrative burden reduction benefits are the greatest,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, a senior fellow and director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiative at the Brookings Institution. (Johnson, 3/17)