Top 10 Action Items to Create and Electronic Health System
1. Health IT adoption. Invest in physician adoption of information technologies by financially incentivizing its purchase and use. Models could include bonus payments, expanding the CMS Electronic Health Record Demonstration and higher Medicare reimbursement rates, such as the model for encouraging the adoption of electronic prescribing in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA). Electronic health records and other technologies purchased using federal dollars must be certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT).
2. Interoperability data standards. Expedite the development, completion and promulgation of key interoperability data standards. Aggressive deadlines should be set for their completion. Value/use cases and subsequent data standards should be prioritized anew.
3. Do not refight battles of the past. Build upon current industry governance, such as CCHIT, Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and the National eHealth Collaborative (formerly AHIC). No new parallel organizations should be created to address the problems these entities are tackling.
4. Personal health information. Make patient-protected Medicare data available to beneficiaries, and their providers if patients so choose, via smart-card technology and web portals. Making Medicare claims data available at the point of care will help coordinate care, improve patient safety, and lower costs, particularly for medication management.
5. CMS personal health records. Expand the CMS Personal Health Record pilot to a broader demonstration project and then nationwide. CMS should make claims information accessible through any personal health record that a beneficiary chooses, if the technology is certified by CCHIT.
6. Homeland security. Fund a joint project between HHS and DHS to explore the use of existing federal IT infrastructures, such as the Veterans Administration, Tricare and HHS, with non-governmental networks, such as Internet2 and SureScripts-RxHub, to create a nationwide notification network for extreme disasters. This project should build upon the CDC’s Public Health Information Network by including organizations and individual healthcare providers beyond public health.
7. Open-source technology. Promote the use of open-source technologies and collaborations in RFIs or RFPs for taxpayer-funded health infrastructure initiatives. Any developed software created using federal funds should be “owned” by the public and contributed back to open source communities on commercially reasonable terms in accordance with Open Source Initiative approved licenses.
8. Coordination. Coordinate the implementation of ICD-10 diagnosis/procedure codes and HIPAA 5010 transaction codes with the National eHealth Collaborative, HITSP, and other entities. Modernizing this information is crucial to gathering more precise data for reporting and comparative effectiveness, but their implementation must be orderly, organized, and coordinated among all parties, both public and private.
9. Administrative simplification. Migrate all providers to electronic processes for administration, including eligibility verification, claims status inquiry, claims remittance, and electronic payment. CMS must lead by making a real investment in its own electronic processes, followed by rewarding and then requiring their use for all government health programs.
10. Innovation. Invest in promising state and local health information exchanges that are replicable and self-sustaining.
2. Interoperability data standards. Expedite the development, completion and promulgation of key interoperability data standards. Aggressive deadlines should be set for their completion. Value/use cases and subsequent data standards should be prioritized anew.
3. Do not refight battles of the past. Build upon current industry governance, such as CCHIT, Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and the National eHealth Collaborative (formerly AHIC). No new parallel organizations should be created to address the problems these entities are tackling.
4. Personal health information. Make patient-protected Medicare data available to beneficiaries, and their providers if patients so choose, via smart-card technology and web portals. Making Medicare claims data available at the point of care will help coordinate care, improve patient safety, and lower costs, particularly for medication management.
5. CMS personal health records. Expand the CMS Personal Health Record pilot to a broader demonstration project and then nationwide. CMS should make claims information accessible through any personal health record that a beneficiary chooses, if the technology is certified by CCHIT.
6. Homeland security. Fund a joint project between HHS and DHS to explore the use of existing federal IT infrastructures, such as the Veterans Administration, Tricare and HHS, with non-governmental networks, such as Internet2 and SureScripts-RxHub, to create a nationwide notification network for extreme disasters. This project should build upon the CDC’s Public Health Information Network by including organizations and individual healthcare providers beyond public health.
7. Open-source technology. Promote the use of open-source technologies and collaborations in RFIs or RFPs for taxpayer-funded health infrastructure initiatives. Any developed software created using federal funds should be “owned” by the public and contributed back to open source communities on commercially reasonable terms in accordance with Open Source Initiative approved licenses.
8. Coordination. Coordinate the implementation of ICD-10 diagnosis/procedure codes and HIPAA 5010 transaction codes with the National eHealth Collaborative, HITSP, and other entities. Modernizing this information is crucial to gathering more precise data for reporting and comparative effectiveness, but their implementation must be orderly, organized, and coordinated among all parties, both public and private.
9. Administrative simplification. Migrate all providers to electronic processes for administration, including eligibility verification, claims status inquiry, claims remittance, and electronic payment. CMS must lead by making a real investment in its own electronic processes, followed by rewarding and then requiring their use for all government health programs.
10. Innovation. Invest in promising state and local health information exchanges that are replicable and self-sustaining.
