Lawmakers speak up for healthcare IT | Healthcare IT News

From the October 2011 print issue HealthcareITNews

Push for legislation despite ‘tough year’ in Congress

Members of Congress have been absorbed this year in federal budget issues and the economy, but not all of them have forgotten the cause of healthcare IT advancement.

Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-Tex.) was slated at press time to give a keynote at this year’s HIMSS Policy Summit in conjunction with National Health IT Week, Sept. 12-16 in Washington, D.C.

“When I came to Congress in 2003, I was not the biggest proponent of health IT,” Burgess told Healthcare IT News in an exclusive interview. But, events after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 changed his mind “in a big way.”

At a field hearing post-Katrina in New Orleans, Burgess said he saw “row after row” of paper records at Charity Hospital turned black from mold. Hazmat protection was required to touch the destroyed documents.

A few days after the hurricane, Burgess assisted other doctors in the Dallas Arena in treating victims of the hurricane. Many were in no condition to remember any of their medical history or the medications they were taking, he said. Walgreens was there with computers loaded on a truck, assisting victims who had used them as a pharmacy. They were able to look up prescription records electronically to get some of a patient’s medical history. “These were powerful images,” Burgess said.

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New Look at HIE May Change MU

HDM Breaking News, December 9, 2010 from Health Data Management

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is seeking public comment on a call from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to rapidly revamp how health information is exchanged. In particular, ONC seeks comment on how a quick transition in HIE policies and technologies would affect Stage 2 meaningful use criteria.

The President's advisors recommend development and use of a "universal exchange language" to facilitate health data exchange while enhancing the privacy and security of health information (see story). This type of language breaks data into individual units of data accompanied by a "metadata tag" with instructions on how the data is to be used.

ONC has published a request for information with comments due by the end of business on January 17. Among other areas, the agency seeks comment on standards and processes to support metadata and tagged data elements, ways to rapidly develop and use the standards and processes, transition challenges, associated policy actions, and lessons learned in other industries using universal exchange languages.

--Joseph Goedert

Workgroup begins work on Stage 2 of meaningful use rules

By Jean DerGurahian, News Writer

27 Sep 2010 | SearchHealthIT.com

The first stage of meaningful use rules haven't taken effect yet, but policymakers already are turning their attention to the second and third stages of the program designed to encourage the greater adoption of information technology among health care providers.

More on the meaningful use rules

Criteria for meaningful use of EHR

How EHR standards align with meaningful use

On Sept. 22, the Meaningful Use Workgroup of the federal Health IT Policy Committee held the first of two day-long brainstorming sessions that signal the beginning of work to draft the criteria doctors and hospitals will follow after 2012, when Stage 2 is set to begin.

Expect a lot more discourse on such issues as computerized physician order entry (CPOE), drug interactions indicators, advance directives, and quality measures and clinical decision support. While the workgroup is delving into ways to extend current meaningful use rules and develop new ones, those areas in particular were questioned deeply.

Under the federal Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (EHRIP), Medicare and Medicaid providers demonstrate they are meeting meaningful use rules and are eligible for incentive payments. The five-year program is voluntary, but providers that don't demonstrate they have adopted and are using health IT after 2015 will see cuts in their reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees EHRIP. The policy committee is run by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, or ONC, which works in conjunction with CMS on meaningful use and technology standards.

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Federal workgroup wants encryption even for direct HIE

May 27, 2010 — 12:27pm ET | By Neil Versel on http://www.fierceemr.com

The privacy and security workgroup of the federal Health IT Policy Committee is recommending that providers encrypt any personally identifiable patient information whenever they share data with others, even when a third-party health information exchange is not involved.

The workgroup is asking HHS officials to set policies for data encryption, limits on specificity in message headers and identity verification of both sender and receiver, even in direct, one-to-one exchanges, as part of final rules for "meaningful use" of EMRs, Government Health IT reports. Such rules are what a "reasonable patient would expect," said workgroup co-chair Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

This recommendation takes into account new, tougher, HIPAA privacy and security rules, which come with increased penalties for violations. "If strong policies, such as the above, are in place and enforced, we don't think this scenario needs any additional individual consent beyond what is already required by current law," McGraw said.

Direct HIE likely will be a "stage 1" requirement of meaningful use. HHS promises a final rule in June.

Read more: http://www.fierceemr.com/story/federal-workgroup-wants-encryption-even-direct-hie/2010-05-27#ixzz0p9mEGO9P

HHS panel says ease 2011 meaningful use tests

By Mary Mosquera on GovernmentHealthit.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A Health and Human Services advisory group today recommended the government abandon an “all or nothing” approach to its plan for offering doctors and hospitals financial incentives next year for getting electronic health record systems up and running.

In a meeting of HHS Health IT Policy Committee, members recommended the government relax some 2011 requirements for “meaningful use” of health IT in order to give providers more flexibility in qualifying for the plan in their first year of eligibility.

The Committee recommended providers be able to defer up to five proposed measures of meaningful use from 2011 to 2013. Six measures – including showing the ability to perform e-prescribing and providing patients an electronic copy of their heath records -- would remain fixed first year requirements.

Under the committee’s Feb. 17 proposal, providers would still have to meet 80 percent of the original meaningful use measures.

The shift would establish a common set of health IT functions among providers qualifying in the first year of eligibility while providing them options for ramping up for the new technology.

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Meaningful Use Rules Now Official

HDM Breaking News, January 13, 2010

Agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 13 officially published two rules covering the meaningful use of electronic health records provisions of the HITECH Act within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Publication of the rules starts the clock for the public comment period, with both rules having a March 15 deadline for comment. The proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services defines "meaningful use" of electronic health records to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments. It lays out a series of measures to collect and report data to government agencies. The rule is 169 pages long in a PDF format.

An interim final rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology sets initial standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for EHR technology. The rule is 33 pages long in a PDF format. A forthcoming rule will establish an EHR certification program.

The rules are available at gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.htm

HHS defines rules for receiving billions for e-health systems

BY ALIYA STERNSTEIN 01/04/2010

From http://www.nextgov.com

Recently released government standards for electronic health record systems show what medical professionals must buy to receive some of the nearly $20 billion in stimulus funding set aside to encourage the development of technology, and Web-based technologies that Google and Microsoft developed may be eligible purchases in the future, IT specialists say.

The Health and Human Services Department issued preliminary guidelines on Dec. 30, 2009. Medical professionals who make "meaningful use" of certified electronic health records, as defined by the department, will be eligible for up to $44,000 in Medicare bonus payments during the next five years.

One preliminary rule dictates the types of technologies providers must use to be eligible for the incentives, setting initial standards and criteria for certifying the systems. A separate proposed rule defines meaningful use as complying with specific procedures -- including the reliance on certified technologies -- in ways that enhance the coordination of care, engage patients and families, and ensure privacy. [Continue Reading]

MGMA: Many Physician Groups Not Yet Ready To Invest in EHRs

From iHealthBeat.org

Many physician group practices are likely to delay electronic health record adoption because of logistical and financial concerns, experts said this week at the Medical Group Management Association's annual convention, Healthcare IT News reports.

MGMA represents 22,500 medical group administrators and managers from across the country.

Robert Tennant, senior policy adviser for MGMA, said most of the physician practices MGMA represents will not qualify by 2011 for incentive payments under the federal economic stimulus package.

Under the stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate "meaningful use" of EHRs will qualify for incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid. However, the federal government has yet to issue a final definition for meaningful use.

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No vendor is perfect on 'meaningful use,' report concludes

June 08, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

OREM, UT – Even as the healthcare IT industry awaits the official definition of "meaningful use" from the federal government, a new report from KLAS examines which electronic medical record products should fit that description.

The report, "Meaningful Use Leading to Improved Outcomes," assesses how well core clinical vendors are delivering solutions for CPOE, nursing automation, medication administration and other key areas.

Nine EMR vendors are profiled in the report: Cerner, CPSI, Eclipsys, Epic, GE, McKesson, Meditech, QuadraMed and Siemens.

"Since the introduction of the stimulus package and its provisions for health IT, much of the market rhetoric and industry debate has centered on the concept of meaningful use – what will it entail and how will it impact the receipt of stimulus dollars," said KLAS Founder and Chairman Kent Gale. "Whatever the final definition of the term, if improved patient outcomes are indeed the ultimate goal, then some form of clinician adoption will be critical."

"In particular, deep adoption among physicians is pivotal to the overarching success of an EMR implementation," Gale said. [Continue Reading]