The American Medical Association (AMA) is pleased with the Meaningful Use Stage 2 extension but continues to advocate for more flexibility to keep the program going.

"The American Medical Association is pleased that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided to extend the deadline for eligible providers to attest to Meaningful Use, but is concerned that the program will still face low participation rates without substantial changes to its rigid requirements," said President-Elect Steven Stack, MD.

"Only 24 percent of physicians have attested to Meaningful Use for 2014 as of the beginning of February. The deadline extension underscores that the Meaningful Use program is not working and that policymakers need to act on our recommendations to make it more flexible, remove the measures that physicians are having the most difficulty in meeting and revamp the certification program so that electronic health record vendors can innovate to create products that better serve patients and physicians."

AMA's recommendations stem from its Meaningful Use blueprint issued last fall which focuses on more flexibility, better alignment of quality measure requirements and restructured EHR certification.