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Request for Comments
[By Staff Reporters]
Working to ensure all Americans benefit from health IT is one of the principles guiding the development and execution of the federal health IT strategy. The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan that was released for public comment on March 25, 2011, states that we will strive to: Support health information technology (heath IT) benefits for all.
All Americans should have equal access to quality health care. This includes the benefits conferred by health IT.: The government will endeavor to assure that underserved and at-risk individuals enjoy these benefits to the same extent as all other citizens.
Health IT Disparities Workgroup
For the past few months, the Health IT Disparities Workgroup — comprised of staff from agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): with strategic and operational programs in health IT and co-chaired by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) — has led a focused effort to further define the federal government’s strategies and tactics to reduce health IT disparities within underserved communities. The result of this process will reflect our commitment to do more to reduce health IT disparities.
The Health IT Disparities Workgroup is developing a federal plan to reduce health IT disparities.: A draft set of strategies/tactics — aligned with the five goals of the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan — is included below: We hope you will assist us by providing comments on the following questions:
- What do you think of the draft strategies / tactics listed below?
- What specific activities would you like to see the federal government take on to reduce health IT disparities?
HIT
Health information technologies — such as electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, mobile health, and electronic disease registries — have been identified as effective means of helping to deliver safe, effective, affordable health care services; coordinate care across providers and clinical settings; and provide critical population data that may catalyze further policy and delivery system innovations.
Meaningful Use
The growing adoption and meaningful use of health IT is even more critical within the context of underserved communities. Within both rural and urban underserved communities, access to primary and specialty health care resources can be limited. This scarcity in many instances contributes to reduced quality of health care and of health outcomes for people residing in these communities. Within underserved communities, the use of health IT has demonstrated it can improve health outcomes, both from an individual and community-/system-wide perspective.
Federal Planning
Federal planning efforts focused at reducing health disparities, including The National Stakeholder’s Strategy and the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, highlight the proliferation of meaningful use of health IT within underserved communities as a critical objective. This draft set of strategies/tactics (see below) for the federal plan to reduce health IT disparities aims to ensure that underserved communities realize the full benefits of health IT.
Assessment
Conclusion
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Filed under: Information Technology | Tagged: Department of Health and Human Services, EHRs, electronic health records, EMRs, Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, Health IT Disparities, HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, meaningful use, Office of Minority Health, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology |
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CMS Develops New EHR Guide for Docs
The CMS has developed what it describes as a “comprehensive tool” to help guide physicians and other eligible professionals through all phases of the Medicare electronic health-record incentive payment program.
The Web-based interactive resource, called “An Introduction to the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for Eligible Professionals” includes chapters on program basics, eligibility and registration. It also has a description of all of the Stage 1 meaningful-use criteria and advises practitioners on how to choose the optional measures they will use as part of the attestation phase of the program.
Physicians and other eligible professionals have until December 31st. to complete 90 consecutive days of meaningful use of a certified EHR, and until Feb. 28, 2012, to report their data and attest that they have met the criteria to be deemed meaningful users in the Medicare portion of the program.
Source: Joseph Conn, Modern Physician [12/1/11]
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Is Health IT too big to fail?
“The factual premise on which Congress based the expenditure of billions of dollars in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for bonuses to providers and practitioners who became ‘meaningful users’ of health IT was that it would save 100,000 lives and $77 billion annually. There has been little evidence either before or after the enactment of ARRA that health IT will achieve this result. This is probably why the health IT legislation was put in a ‘stimulus’ bill rather than the health reform bill. It is much more likely to create jobs and income in the technology industry than to reduce the cost of health care.”
James Pyles
Patient privacy rights attorney
March 9, 2012.
This week, Rob Tholemeier, writing for HealthDataManagement.com, said:
“The Bipartisan Policy Center Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT’s January 2012 report, ‘Transforming Health Care: The Role of Health IT’ has one glaring and stupefying omission — nowhere in the report does it address productivity.
As we see in most government and academic edicts on health care information technology, this document focuses on effectiveness, touches on efficiency, but completely ignores productivity. This is despite the fact our health care system has pretty much tapped out all potential sources of additional financial resources (personal or governmental).”
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/blogs/bipartisan-task-force-EHR-productivity-meaningful-use-44166-1.html
Since Health IT doesn’t save 100,000 lives and $7 billion annually, and does nothing to increases productivity in healthcare, doesn’t that make Americans really foolish for long ago committing billions of dollars we don’t have to encourage misinformed providers to adopt lousy HIT products?
What are the names of those whom our grandchildren should hold accountable for the huge, wasteful blunder that they will have to pay for?
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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