Value Based Purchasing and Health Care Reform

HHS Proposes Accounting of Electronic Disclosures

Pursuant to both the HITECH Act and its more general authority under HIPAA, HHS proposes to expand the accounting provision to to require covered entities and business associates to account for disclosures of protected health information to carry out treatment, payment, and health care operations if such disclosures are through an electronic health record.

For additional information, see the following:

HHS Press Release: HHS announces changes to HIPAA Privacy Rule (5/31/2011)

HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosure Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (5/31/2011)

ONCHIT Announces "Meaningful Use" Conference Call - May 19, 2011

Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced that CMS will hold a national provider education call to provide an opportunity for eligible hospitals, CAHs and eligible professionals to learn about the meaningful use requirements of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.  The call is scheduled for Thursday, May 19 at 2:30 p.m. EDT. 

Registration will close at 2:30 p.m. EDT on May 18, 2011, or when available space has been filled.

For more information or to register for the call, click here.

 

Public Comment Period for Federal Health IT Strategic Plan Now Open

The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015 reflects the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's strategy for coordinating with the public and private sector to realize Congress and the Administration's health IT agenda: improving the quality, efficiency, safety and patient-centeredness of health care.

Comments must be submitted via the Federal Health IT Buzz Blog. The comment period will end Friday, April 22 at 11:59pm (EST).

For additional information, see the following links: 

HHS News Release: ONC announces open public comment on the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011 - 2015 (3/25/2011) 

Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015 website

HHS: Hospitals and Physicians Intend to Take Advantage of EHR Incentives

A January 13th U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Press Release states, "[f]our-fifths of the nation’s hospitals, and 41 percent of office-based physicians, currently intend to take advantage of federal incentive payments for adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR) technology, according to survey data released today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).  The survey information was released as the registration period opened for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs." 

For additional information, see the HHS Press Release:

Surveys show significant proportions of hospitals and doctors already plan to adopt electronic health records and qualify for federal incentive payments

 

ACOs and EHRs

For more information, see the following article:

ACOs: The IT Challenges Within (CMIO) (1/3/2011)

HHS Awards Funds for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research; Rural EHR Incentives

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the award of more than $14.2 million to "develop, implement, and test strategies to increase the adoption and dissemination of interventions based on patient-centered outcomes research among racial and ethnic minority populations."  The awards are part of the investments made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which appropriated $1.1 billion to support patient-centered outcomes research.  "Patient-centered outcomes research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harm of different treatment options.  The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care." 

Read the September 15th News Release

Additionally, on Friday, September 10th, HHS announced nearly $20 million in new technical support assistance to help critical access and rural hospital facilities convert from paper-based medical records to certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.

This support is "aimed specifically at assisting critical access and rural hospitals with their particular needs and challenges. This new funding is added to the substantial base [HHS has] already built to provide assistance to health care providers throughout the country as they transition to EHRs.”  The funding will go to 46 of the 60 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) currently operating throughout the country, which offer technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of certified EHRs under the Medicare and Medicaid incentives programs. 

According to the News Release, some "1,655 critical access and rural hospitals in 41 states and the nationwide Indian Country, headquartered in the District of Columbia, stand to benefit from this assistance, which can help each of them qualify for substantial EHR incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid."

Read the September 10th News Release

HHS Names Initial EHR Certification Bodies

For more information, see the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services News Release (August 30, 2010).  An excerpt from the release is provided below:

"The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Ill. and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas, were named today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year.

Announcement of these ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs) means that EHR vendors can now begin to have their products certified as meeting criteria to support meaningful use, a key step in the national initiative to encourage adoption and effective use of EHRs by America’s health care providers."

 

Health Care Stories for America

The Huffington Post article below describes Organizing for America’s new online tool designed to “personalize the debate over health care reform and galvanize grassroots support for the president's plan.”  The website allows Americans to share and search for stories of individual health care struggles in an effort to demonstrate a "common thread in crisis that affects us all” and put a personal touch on the health care crisis.

 

See the Huffington Post Article:  Huffington.

 

Visit the Health Care Stories for America website:  Stories.

Health IT

Health Information Technology and its Future: More Than the Money Conference

The Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation sponsored a conference on June 20, 2008 that focused on health information technology (“HIT”).  This conference focused on the use of HIT as a quality and efficiency tool.  Director Peter Orszag of the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) outlined the negative ways in which the high costs of healthcare are impacting both the overall economy and the Medicare program.  Director Orszag opined that HIT was not going to be a “magic cure” that would increase healthcare effectiveness and efficiency, but that improvements could only be accomplished with general adoption of HIT.  Congress is clearly focused on the Medicare value-based purchasing initiative, and the financing of HIT is one of the challenges that the CBO is attempting to address under this initiative.  The materials presented in the HIT conference may be accessed at:
http://www.allhealth.org/briefing_detail.asp?bi=131.

Clinical integration and the implementation of HIT to support the development of quality-based payment programs are only two (albeit, substantial) elements of a value based purchasing program.  These two conferences demonstrate that the road to a meaningful value based purchasing program will be incremental and that substantial complexity is involved when assembling the clinical, regulatory and organizational components of a value based program.  While the process is daunting, it should not be ignored.  The Medicare payment program will soon be driven by value-based purchasing.  Physician groups will be hard pressed to compete if they have not embraced the clinical integration model.