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Reading through the headlines, the press releases and checking in on today’s HIT Policy Committee meeting, it appears that the over-riding theme of comments regarding Meaningful Use rules is to relax the rules, particularly regarding reimbursement and clarify other requirements of MU to ease the burden on providers seeking to comply.
The Office of Management and Budget and the Health and Human Services Department late last month called for the creation of a government-wide task force to help coordinate health IT planning among federal agencies.
The HITECH stimulus funds have created great buzz in health and health IT. Providers are contemplating electronic medical record (EMR) implementations, vendors are scurrying to be "meaningful use" compliant, and states and others are planning for Medicaid, health information exchange, training and other related services.
Coming on the same day as the announcement that HHS will put another $162 million toward Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), the news that Pennsylvania has decided not to partner with Delaware as it works to develop its own HIE would be easy to overlook.
Sutter Health, a Northern California not-for-profit network of community-based healthcare providers, announced it will resume implementation of EHRs throughout its hospitals. Not that the large hospital system is a bellwether for the economic recovery, but given that it stopped its initiative because of the recession, it's easy to come to that conclusion at first blush. The second thought is whether other health systems feel comfortable enough to resume their health IT initiatives.
If you're looking for that clinching reason to finally kickstart the sprawling ICD-10 conversion, here it is: The longer you wait, and the nearer the deadline draws, the harder it may be to recruit workers with ICD-10 expertise.
Yesterday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the awarding of over $160 million in new grants to help states advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.
With some standards being dropped and others being added, the Interim Final Rule (IFR) for EHR standards and certification is not aligned with CCHIT's current certification process. If the Final Rule is largely unchanged from the IFR, CCHIT says the new process could slow down the EHR adoption rate.
It's my nature to question authority. Whether it's religion, politics, or even my local administrative leadership, authority figures must earn my trust. Earning that trust is not easy.
In the last two years, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has received 260 reports of health IT malfunctions, some of which resulted in 44 reported injuries and six deaths. These numbers are prompting FDA officials to call for a federal framework and oversight to ensure patient safety.