Edition Thirty-Eight (2/16/10)

Docs, Groups Rally Around Stripped HIT Amendment
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 2/12/10
A provision to extend federal EHR subsidies to hospital-based physicians who practice in outpatient settings was stripped from the first draft of a Senate Finance Committee jobs bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), after lawmakers first circulated the legislation on Capitol Hill.

Obama Awards Money for Electronic Medical Records
ABC News, 2/12/10
The Obama administration announced $975 million in grants to help states, doctors, and hospitals move from paper to computerized record-keeping. Kathleen Sebelius announced $386 million in grants to advance EHRs at the state level, and $375 million to 32 nonprofits for regional training of health care workers on these technologies.

Federal Officials Tout Importance of Health I.T. Adoption
iHealthBeat, 2/12/10
Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, National Coordinator for Health I.T., David Blumenthal, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director, Carolyn Clancy, spoke at a joint plenary session of the National Health Information Exchange Summit, the Health I.T. Summit for Government Leaders, and the Eighteenth National HIPAA Summit.

Jobs Bill Would Change Meaningful Use Eligibility
Health Data Management, 2/10/10
The House and Senate are working on a new "mini-stimulus" bill, with the House already passing a version with about $155 billion in spending. The Hill, a newspaper which covers Congress, recently leaked the Senate version, called "The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act."

Doctors Increase Use of Electronic Health Records: Report
TMCnet, 2/10/10
According to a new survey, 48.4 percent of respondents reported during their last visit to a primary care physician or specialist, the doctor stored their medical records digitally on a computer in the exam room instead of paper charts.

Guerra on Health Care: e-Medical Record Pros in Short Supply
InformationWeek, 2/9/10
If you listened closely enough, you could almost hear a "whoops" emanate from Washington after the initial post-ARRA euphoria wore off last fall. By this point, the health care I.T. industry had fully digested the massive pill and got a good sense of where the meaningful use bar would be set.

Sankaran Maps Government's Promotion of Health Care I.T.
Healthcare IT News, 2/9/10
Speaking in Boston at the Healthcare Stimulus Exchange Roadshow, Vish Sankaran, director for the Federal Health Architecture Program, outlined his vision for the government's role in promoting broader health care I.T. adoption via the NHIN.

Blumenthal: EHRs will Become 'an Absolute Requisite' for Docs
Healthcare IT News, 2/5/10
David Blumenthal spoke at the 18th National HIPAA Summit, where other federal officials and stakeholders said the adoption of health care I.T. is urgent. History has shown things which improve health care become part of what is used, and in a few years, all doctors will support EHRs.

Many Small Practice Physicians Putting Off Meaningful Use Guidelines
HealthLeaders, 2/4/10
For many physicians in small office practices, the thought of adopting EHRs to meet federal meaningful use guidelines and timelines is a daunting one at best. Doctors aren't sure the systems they buy will be interoperable with their hospitals or will meet certification standards, and they're not sure the government will make good on its promise to provide stimulus reimbursement.

Blumenthal Outlines HITECH's Ultimate Goals in NEJM Perspective
iHealthbeat, 2/4/10
In a perspective piece, David Blumenthal discusses the federal government's plans and objectives for implementing the health I.T. provisions of the 2009 federal economic stimulus package. Blumenthal says the stimulus package's health I.T. provisions are best understood not as investments in technology but as efforts to improve the health of Americans and the performance of their health care system.

HITSP Future Unclear Under New Administration's Rule
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 2/3/10 
It appears HITSP has become yet another organization formed at the behest of the Bush administration which is being forced to reapply for its job under the federal government's new heath I.T. authority.

DoD-VA Seek $2.8 Billion for Health I.T. in 2011
Government Health IT, 2/3/10
Health I.T. programs figure prominently in the proposed fiscal year 2011 budgets of the DoD and VA. DoD has requested a total of $1.5 billion for health I.T. in the 2011 budget, up from $1.4 billion this year. VA is asking for $1.3 billion for health I.T. in 2011, down from $1.4 billion in 2010.

2011 Budget Bumps I.T. Funding
Health Data Management, 2/2/10
ONC, which has received $61 million annually for the past three years, is slated for $78 million in funding from HHS. This does not count the remaining "jump start" funding already allocated under the ARRA. AHRQ gets a much bigger boost, from $397 million in 2010 to a requested $611 million in 2011.

ONC Readies Extension Center Awards
Health Data Management, 2/2/10
ONC will make the first set of grant awards available to regional HIT extension centers under a $598 million program authorized under ARRA, according to a notice published by ONC. The centers will provide technical assistance and disseminate best practices to physician practices and hospitals wishing to adopt EHRs.

Feds to Survey Patients About EHRs
Health Data Management, 2/2/10
ONC will survey nearly 1,700 patients to access their perceptions of the delivery of care through EHRs. The study will help policymakers understand how EHR use effects consumers' satisfaction with their medical care, communication with physicians, and coordination of care.

SSA Awards 15 Contracts to Expand HIE Nationwide
Government Health IT, 2/1/10
The SSA divvied up $17.4 million in contracts to 15 health information networks, providers, and health I.T. firms from California to Florida. The contracts extend on a nation-wide scale an application SSA began testing three years ago with Virginia-based HIE MedVirginia.

Meaningful Use Calls for Meaningful Risk Analysis
HealthLeaders, 2/1/10
CMS stresses the need for an internal risk assessment in ARRA's meaningful use proposed rule. It refers organizations back to the HIPAA Security Rule requirement, which says a risk analysis helps form the foundation upon which an entity's necessary security activities are built.

Survey Shows Increasing EHR Use
Health Data Management, 2/1/10
Preliminary results from an annual national survey of office-based physicians show 43.9% of respondents reported using some level of EHR systems in their practices in 2009, up almost 6% from 41.5% reporting EHR use in 2008.

Grants to Bolster Electronic Medical Records System
The Providence Journal, 2/14/10
More than $11 million in federal stimulus money is coming to Rhode Island to boost the adoption of EMRs. Two grants have been awarded to the Rhode Island Quality Institute, a nonprofit agency which is leading the effort to replace paper medical records with an interconnected electronic system.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Receives Funding for HIE
The Capital-Journal, 2/13/10
HHS has awarded more than $9 million in Recovery Act funding to the Kansas Health Information Exchange Project to help facilitate HIE at the state level. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is the state designee for HIT and is facilitating the creation of strategic and operational plans for a statewide infrastructure.

Vermont to Receive $12M from Feds to Digitize Medical Records
Burlington Free Press, 2/13/10
Vermont will receive nearly $12 million in stimulus money to help convert to electronic records. The state will distribute most of it to Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL), which plans to build the interfaces between EHRs and the network.

I.T. Advocate Representative Kennedy Not to Seek Re-Election
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 2/12/10
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), advocate for the implementation of HIT and mental health parity, announced he will not be seeking re-election this Fall. He introduced the “Personal Health Record Act of 2009," which would require the National Coordinator to develop guidelines on technological standards for interoperability between PHRs and EHRs.

Michigan Gets $35 Million for Electronic Medical Record Keeping
The Detroit News, 2/12/10
Michigan was awarded nearly $35 million to help hospitals and physicians move to EHRs, creating hundreds of jobs. The I.T. and retraining grants announced by Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, were part of nearly $1 billion in grants nationwide.

Governor Quinn Announces $18.8 Million in Federal Funds for Electronic Health Records Efforts
Illinois Government News Network, 2/12/10
Governor Pat Quinn announced Illinois will receive $18.8 million in federal funds to develop a statewide HIE, which will allow Illinois’ health care providers to electronically share health information. To lead this effort, Governor Quinn signed an Executive Order to create the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology.

Hawaii Gets $5.6M for Health Information Exchange
Pacific Business News, 2/12/10
Hawaii has received $5.6 million in stimulus funding which will be used to create the Hawaii Health Information Exchange, a consortium of Hawaii hospitals and health care providers, which will craft the plan for a statewide integrated electronic system linking patient medical records.

North Carolina Receives $26.5M for Health I.T.
Asheville Citizen-Times, 2/12/10
The North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund will receive $12.9 million to facilitate HIE in the state. In addition, $13.6 million has been awarded to the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program to establish a comprehensive regional extension center to provide training and technical support for primary care providers using EHRs.

Halamka, Bates Spotlight Health I.T. Use in Boston
Healthcare IT New, 2/10/10
Stressing the benefits of early action—and illustrating just how much farther ahead in adoption Massachusetts is than many other parts of the country—two significant local users of health care I.T. offered insights from their experiences in Boston at the Healthcare Stimulus Exchange Roadshow.

Health Care CIOs Get New Certification
InformationWeek, 2/11/10 
CHIME has launched the first health care CIO-specific certification program. The Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) program is being created by health care CIOs with the help of Castle Worldwide, an organization which developed certification exams in other industries.

Who'll Run Your I.T.?
H&HN, 2/10/10
Building a HIT staff with the complex mix of clinical, computer, and process engineering skills required to support advanced health care applications, has always been tough. Over the next five years, hospitals face major I.T. changes which will produce acute shortages of skilled I.T. workers.

FCC to Promote Mobile Health Apps in Broadband Plan
Government Health IT, 2/4/10
ARRA called for the FCC to develop a plan for establishing broadband connections to the Internet as a way to spur business development, job creation, and improvements in health care. As part of the plan, the FCC will analyze health I.T. applications enabled by broadband, including EHRs, which advocate the use of cell phones and other mobile devices to improve health care.

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