I’m in China this week, meeting with government, academia, and industry leaders in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou. The twelve hour time difference means that I can work a day in China, followed by a day in Boston. For the next 7 days, I’ll truly be living on both sides of the planet. I recently delivered this policy update about the key developments in healthcare IT policy and sentiment over the past 90 days. I’ve not written a specific summary of the recently released Quality Patient Program proposed rule which provides the detailed regulatory guidance for implementation of MACRA/MIPS, but here’s the excellent 26 page synopsis created by CMS which provides an overview of the 1058 page rule...
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
See the following -
Feature Overlaps Between Immunization Information Systems and EHRs
By Noam H. Arzt, Ph.D. | May 15, 2018
Immunization Information Systems (IIS) have been around for nearly twenty years. Their functionality, completeness, and usefulness have all increased over this time. IIS and electronic health record (EHR) systems have always had unique features, as well as some overlapping features, and the deployment of EHRs has enhanced the local immunization capabilities of clinician practices. Several critical clinical features that are considered to be core functions of IIS are beginning to be supported by EHRs. This article will review and discuss five such critical features: online data entry, clinical decision support for immunization, reminder-recall, practice-level assessment of up-to-date status, and patient access to their immunization data.
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Federal Health Officials Call For New Quality Measurement Framework
Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | June 6, 2013
Federal health officials are calling for a new framework in quality measurement, as the U.S. healthcare system prepares for what is hoped to be a new era of accountability. Read More »
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Funding Opportunities for Building Data Connections Between EMS and Healthcare Partners
Press Release |
NHTSA Office of EMS |
September 1, 2016
EMS providers often treat patients with complicated medical histories yet have no access to relevant health data, such as hospital or out-patient records, which might provide information critical to patient care. EMS reports also are rarely integrated into hospital records, leaving specialists and other hospital staff unaware of how patients presented to EMS initially and what treatments they received prior to arriving at the emergency department...Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a guidance letter that allows the use of Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) funds for expenditures related to electronically connecting Eligible Providers to other Medicaid providers, including EMS, to share health information.
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GAO Hits EHR Incentive Program Hard
Bernie Monegain | Healthcare IT News | March 7, 2014
The GAO recently took a swipe at the government's Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program, saying it lacked strategy and called for action to establish a strategy in order to achieve its goals, especially those aimed at improving care.
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GOP Lawmakers Urge Halt On Meaningful-Use Payments
Jessica Zigmond and Joseph Conn | ModernHealthcare.com | October 4, 2012
HHS should suspend incentive payments to providers in the electronic health-records program and delay penalties to those that do not integrate health IT until the federal department can define clear, interoperable standards, House Republican leaders suggested Thursday in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Read More »
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GOP Senators: Health IT Policy Needs 'Reboot'
Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | April 17, 2013
Six Republican Senators are asking the healthcare community for input on “recalibrating” health information technology policy, arguing that there are several problems with the current trajectory of the meaningful use program. Read More »
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Government Taps Engineers From Google, Red Hat To Fix Healthcare.gov
Adrianne Jeffries | The Verge | October 31, 2013
The government has tapped engineers at Google, Oracle, and Red Hat, among other companies, to assist in untangling the problems with its online health insurance marketplace. The site, a key part of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform effort, has numerous bugs that have prevented Americans from signing up for health insurance...
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Halamaka Takes a Deep Dive on the MACRA NPRM
By John D. Halamka, MD | May 5, 2016
As promised last week, I’ve read and taken detailed notes on the entire 962 page MACRA notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) so that you will not have to. Although this post is long, it is better than the 20 hours of reading I had to do! Here is everything you need to know from an IT perspective about the MACRA NPRM...What is the MACRA NPRM trying to achieve with regard to healthcare IT? The MACRA NPRM proposes to consolidate components of three existing programs, the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Physician Value-based Payment Modifier (VM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program for eligible professionals (EPs), creating a single set of reporting requirements. The rule would sunset payment adjustments under the current PQRS, VM, and the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for eligible professionals...
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Halamka on MU3 Regs: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
By John D. Halamka, MD | March 26, 2015
On Friday March 20, CMS released the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program-Stage 3 and ONC released the 2015 Edition Health Information Technology (Health IT) Certification Criteria, 2015 Edition Base Electronic Health Record (EHR) Definition, and ONC Health IT Certification Program Modifications. Perhaps the most important statement in the entire 700+ pages is the following from the CMS rule: "Stage 3 of meaningful use is expected to be the final stage and would incorporate portions of the prior stages into its requirements."
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Halamka Pays a Visit to Oscar Health
By John D. Halamka, MD | August 10, 2016
Today I’m in New York City visiting Oscar Health, on my continuing quest to determine how best to integrate digital platforms, patient-family engagement, and care coordination in preparation for MACRA/MIPS and the transformation from fee for service to alternative payment models. At the moment, there is no single magic bullet, but there are early innovations that hold promise. At BIDMC we’ve thought the best approach to care management is to identify a cohort with a disease, then enroll that cohort in a program which involves tracking progress against guidelines/protocols, deploying telemedicine/visiting nurses, and measuring data from home-based devices...
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Halamka's Reflections on US Health IT Policy Trajectory
By John D. Halamka, MD | July 6, 2017
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Has Meaningful Use Lost Its Utility For Physicians?
Marla Durben Hirsch | FierceEMR | March 20, 2014
Now seems to be the time for physicians to evaluate their participation in the Meaningful Use program. After all, we're on the brink of leaving the carrot-only incentive phase and entering the penalty phase for those providers who don't meet federal requirements.
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Health Care Data as a Public Utility: How Do We Get There?
Mohit Kaushal and Margaret Darling | Brookings | May 18, 2016
Despite the technological integration seen in banking and other industries, health care data has remained scattered and inaccessible. EHRs remain fragmented among 861 distinct ambulatory vendors and 277 inpatient vendors as of 2013.Similarly, insurance claims are stored in the databases of insurers, and information about public health is often kept in databases belonging to various governmental agencies. These silos wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, except for the lack of interoperability that has long plagued the health care industry. For this reason, many are reconsidering if health care data is a public good, provided to all members of the public without profit...
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Health IT Buzz: Progress on Adoption of Electronic Health Records
By Peter Groen | December 6, 2013
Latest Health IT Buzz on Health Information Technology (HIT) from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) - Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [ARRA] – which included the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs – was signed into law, the nation has seen unprecedented growth in the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Between 2009 and 2012, EHR adoption nearly doubled among physicians and more than tripled among hospitals. Read More »
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Healthcare Quality Metrics 'Abysmal,' Senate Panel Hears
Cheryl Clark | HealthLeaders Media | July 2, 2013
Quality experts, including the CEO of the National Quality Forum and a former CMS administrator, caution members of the Senate Finance Committee that healthcare quality measures must be better coordinated to be effective. Read More »
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