Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
See the following -
Four Takeaways from EHRA’s Health IT Usability Summit
On June 21, the Electronic Health Records Association held its second annual Shaping Usability of Health IT Summit. The event brought together more than 70 individuals, including physicians, EHR developers and even ONC Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Technology Reform John Fleming. Mandy Long, chair of the EHRA Clinician Experience Workgroup and vice president of corporate operations at Modernizing Medicine, co-hosted the summit. In a recent phone interview, Long outlined a few key highlights of the event...
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Fridsma: Healthcare Communication Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
Doug Fridsma, Director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's Office of Standards & Interoperability, says he doesn't believe one-size-fits-all when it comes to healthcare communications efforts. Instead, just like in daily life, comfort is what's most important to each user... Read More »
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Funded vs. Unfunded Standards Development
I've noticed a trend of late. A significant number of standards efforts are being pushed forwards by funded projects, instead of through unfunded initiatives. I'd call them "volunteer-led" initiatives, but in an SDO, there are few real volunteers. I get paid by my employer to participate in standards activities, as do most people I know who are involved. It is simply a matter direct vs. indirect economic benefit. Read More »
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Funding Opportunities for Building Data Connections Between EMS and Healthcare Partners
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 Comes Down On Meaningful Use Program
The Government Accountability Office has recently raised an alarm that the meaningful use incentive program might not be all that it’s cracked up to be.
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GAO Hits EHR Incentive Program Hard
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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GAO Makes Appointments to Health Information Technology Advisory Committee
Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced 15 appointments to the new Health Information Technology (HIT) Advisory Committee. It is extremely valuable to have a range of perspectives and expertise in helping the government address challenges related to health information technology, “It is extremely valuable to have a range of perspectives and expertise in helping the government address challenges related to health information technology,” Dodaro said...
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Getting EHR Vendors Speaking the Same Language
When it comes to the development of truly interoperable EHRs, vendors, including myself, face a real quandary. Most EHR vendors tout an organizational mission statement focused on improving healthcare and helping patients and providers, and to the best of their ability operate accordingly. Read More »
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Giving Patients A Role In Data Exchange
A pilot program at the University of Texas at Austin seeks to find the right processes for enabling patients to track who requests and receives their protected health information. Read More »
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GOP Lawmakers Urge Halt On Meaningful-Use Payments
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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Government Asks Health IT Industry To Police Itself On Patient Safety
In a plan published earlier this week, the government stopped short of establishing a new agency to investigate patient deaths related to health information technology, as recommended by the Institute of Medicine. [...] Read More »
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Group Contracted To Study DoD-VA iEHR Migration At Pacific JITC
The Military Health System (MHS) has awarded Eleu Pacific Partners a two-year, $11.2 million contract to conduct a feasibility study of the transition and migration strategies to be used by the Pacific Joint Information Technology Center (JITC), according to an announcement by Tricare Management Activity (TMA). Read More »
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Growth Of SMART Health Care Apps May Be Slow, But Inevitable
This week has been teaming with health care conferences, particularly in Boston, and was declared by President Obama to be National Health IT Week as well. I chose to spend my time at the second ITdotHealth conference, where I enjoyed many intense conversations with some of the leaders in the health care field [...]. Read More »
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Halamaka Takes a Deep Dive on the MACRA NPRM
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
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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