Edition Twenty (6/16/09)

Consumer Partnership Defines ‘Meaningful Use’
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/15/09
The National Partnership for Women & Families' Consumer Partnership for e-Health is offering its definition of "meaningful use" for health information technology a day ahead of an expected announcement by the federal government regarding the term. The partnership in its report, Getting to Patient-Centered Care: How Health I.T. Can Meet the Needs of Patients and Their Families, focuses on how health I.T. can be used in meaningful ways by patients.

AMA to Set Policy on Electronic Security Breaches
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/15/09
The American Medical Association is set to decide policy on a physician's obligations in the event of a computer security breach, whether the federal incentives and subsidies to buy electronic health records constituted a pay-for-performance scheme, and several other information technology issues over the next three days at its annual House of Delegates meeting being held in Chicago.

Physicians Wait For Health I.T. Guidelines, Officials Want 'Every Doctor's Office' On-line
Kaiser Health News, 6/15/09
Physicians are still waiting for clear cut rules for how they must use health information technology in order to be eligible for economic stimulus-funded incentives, American Medical News, a publication of the American Medical Association, reports. The publication notes that (the $2 billion) "incentive money will directly address the use of EMRs, not the purchase of the systems."

Obama to Tell AMA Health Plan Will Seek Efficiency
Bloomberg, 6/15/09
President Obama will try to convince the nation’s largest group of doctors that his plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system will lead to more efficient care and enhance the country’s fiscal health. In a speech to the American Medical Association, Obama will endorse the creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan operating alongside private coverage while maintaining existing relationships between doctors and patients, according to an administration official.

Transcript: Health Info Tech Coordinator David Blumenthal
Wall Street Journal, 6/15/09
When asked, "What's the potential for health information technology?" David Blumenthal answered, "There's no way to transform the health care system without information technology. Today we use the same technology for recording health care information that Hippocrates used. It defies logic that we will be able to get the best out of health information with sheaths of paper flying around by snail mail."

Survey: Long-Term Providers Mixed on Stimulus
Health Data Management, 6/12/09
A survey of more than 300 home health care and nursing home organizations finds 52% of respondents believe the economic stimulus law will have little or no effect on their businesses. Still, more than a third of respondents expect the law to increase use of health care information technology. Further, nearly 70% of respondents say electronic health records will have a positive effect on their own business according to a study conducted by IVANS Inc., a Stamford, Conn.-based transactions processor.

Can Information Technology Cut Health Care Costs?
International Business Times, 6/12/09
As President Obama refocuses efforts on universal health care, the burdensome question of how to fund it all returns. But without a handle on the rising costs in the current health care system, the possibility for new coverage seems a pipedream. A recent report from the Board of Trustees of Social Security and Medicare indicates that the trust fund supporting the federal Medicare program will be insolvent in 2019—a full seven years sooner than previously projected.

Experts Seek Comment on Quality Data Set
Health Data Management, 6/11/09
An expert panel of the National Quality Forum is seeking comment on the drafting of a quality data set to support automated, standards-based gathering of data from electronic health records and other electronic sources. Washington-based NQF is a not-for-profit organization of industry stakeholders created to implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting. Public comments are due June 30 and NQF member comments are due July 7.

Spotlight on HIMSS Welcomed, But Shaded by Perspective
iHealthBeat, 6/11/09
Scrutiny from mainstream media and volleys of reaction in the blogosphere last month aimed a new kind of spotlight at health I.T. Many, especially those involved on the consumer side of the issue, welcome the light, but they also warn against being blinded by it.

Continua Continues on in Battle for Interoperability
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/11/09
The 3-year-old Continua Health Alliance is making progress in coaxing home health device manufacturers to embrace its data exchange guidelines, but consumer and provider adoption of Continua-certified devices remains a wide-open second front in the battle for interoperability.

7 Ways Health Reform Is Going to Affect You
U.S. News & World Report, 6/10/09
Change is coming to medical care in America, and it may be a done deal by summer's end. From Capitol Hill to the White House, enthusiasm is running high for President Obama's plan to morph with lightning speed the current patchwork, private-public blend of health care into something closer to a single-payer, government-run system.

Group: Health I.T. Essential to Health Reform
Federal Computer Week, 6/10/09
Billions in economic stimulus law money for health information technology could be wasted if the money isn't coordinated with the Obama administration’s broader health care reform efforts, according to the eHealth Initiative, a group that represents 165 health providers, vendors, and organizations. The eHealth Initiative and 21 other health organizations are urging Congress to integrate health I.T. adoption goals in broader health care reform efforts.

1st Meaningful Use Definition Due June 16
Health Data Management, 6/10/09
A workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee on June 16 will unveil its recommendations on the definition of "meaningful use" of electronic health records, confirms John Glaser, senior special advisor to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Glaser, vice president and CIO at Partners HealthCare System in Boston, assumed his ONC position in early May to assist National Coordinator David Blumenthal, M.D., for six months.

Health Reform Launched in Senate
Health Data Management, 6/10/09
Senate Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee have introduced their version of health care reform legislation while negotiations with Republicans continue. The bill includes some information technology provisions, many of which complement the HITECH Act within the economic stimulus law.

Challenges Persist with Stark Law Relaxation Subsidies
Healthcare IT News, 6/10/09
The relaxation of the Stark Law enables hospitals to bear up to 85 percent of the cost of electronic health record (EHR) implementation for community physician offices. Despite the generous subsidy, cost is still a barrier for many physicians, according to panelists at the Economic Stimulus Track session, "Real-World CIOs Who Implemented EHR Subsidies Under Stark."

QIOs Promote ‘Meaningful Use’ with 9th Work Plan
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/9/09
Health I.T. Strategist readers support the idea of CMS-contracted quality improvement organizations, or QIOs, leading efforts to roll out health information technology extension centers, and they may be on to something. Long before the month of February introduced the term “meaningful use” to the health I.T. lexicon, QIOs were practicing exactly that, based on industry interpretations of the phrase.

Health I.T. Will be on Agenda During AMA Meeting
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/9/09
Health care information technology will have a featured role in the upcoming American Medical Association’s House of Delegates meeting, which opens Saturday and runs through June 17 in Chicago. Delegates from 180 medical societies are scheduled to attend. A session giving an overview of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will start off the Monday session at 8 a.m. CT, followed by an 11 a.m. session on creating a quality improvement culture.



What Health Care Model is Best for the Economy?
Vermont Business Magazine, 6/15/09
Cost containment, digitizing medical records, and the shortage of primary care physicians are major issues on the health care industry’s 2009 agenda. Health care professionals, physicians, and state policy overseers say unless more primary care physicians are lured to the state, and medical records made electronic, costs cannot be contained. Business will continue to bear the brunt of higher costs should the state fail to solve these issues.

Health Information Exchange Will Allow Patients to Share Medical Information
HealthLeaders, 6/11/09
Patients in Rhode Island will soon have a choice regarding whether they will allow their protected health information shared through a statewide health information exchange. The exchange will also allow their providers access to lab data and medication history. The HIE—termed currentcare—is a secure electronic network created with a $5 million federal grant that the Rhode Island Department of Health received in September 2004 when Rhode Island was chosen as one of six states to receive funds from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Maine Bill Aims to Require Reporting on Infections
Modern Healthcare, subscription needed 6/11/09
The governor of Maine is pledging to do more to help residents access quality health services, after praising state lawmakers for passing a series of bills aimed at lowering costs, improving care, reducing hospital-acquired infections, and promoting transparency. Among the bills Gov. John Baldacci signed into law is a new 2.14% claims surcharge for the state’s health care program, Dirigo Health, starting Oct. 1, as well as two laws to require hospitals to report to the state prevention protocols and surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections starting in January.

Maryland Enacts Health I.T. Incentive Law
American Medical News, 6/10/09
Maryland has followed the federal government's lead by enacting its own legislation aimed at encouraging physicians to adopt electronic health record systems. Gov. Martin O'Malley on May 19 signed into law the bill, "Electronic Health Records—Regulation and Reimbursement." It is meant to complement the most recent federal stimulus package, which provides a net of about $20 billion in Medicare and Medicaid bonuses to physicians, hospitals, and others who adopt certified EHRs.



Using Twitter for EZ-HIT: Accessible, Fast Platform Has Much To Offer
iHealthbeat, 6/9/09
"Twitter understands Web 2.0 better than Facebook," Tim O'Reilly told a group attending a Launchbox start-up confab in early June 2009. Two weeks prior, I had offered testimony to the privacy subcommittee of the National Center for Vital and Health Statistics responding to the question, "What Will Consumer-Facing Health IT Look Like in five or 10 Years?" In a nutshell, I said that health citizens (whom you can alternatively call consumers, patients, caregivers or people) would be engaged with their health and their health data, which would be more liquid, accessible, engaging, actionable, and user-friendly.

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