On Tuesday, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal asked the Health IT Policy Committee's meaningful use work group to revise its initial set of recommendations for defining "meaningful use" of electronic health records, Healthcare IT News reports (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 6/16).
Under the federal economic stimulus package, hospitals and physicians who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments (Kolbasuk McGee, Information Week, 6/17).
The work group unveiled its preliminary meaningful use criteria earlier on Tuesday during a meeting with the full policy committee (Healthcare IT News, 6/16).
The draft recommendations called for health care providers to:
- Implement data sharing and capture by 2011;
- Launch care processes for improved patient outcomes by 2013; and
- Measure and achieve such outcomes by 2015 (Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, 6/16).
During a media call, Blumenthal said that after a "lively discussion (on the criteria) and considerable input on meaningful use, we decided to send the work group back to work on another set."
Blumenthal said he expects the work group to present its amended set of recommendations to the policy committee during its July 16 meeting. He did not elaborate on how long he expects it will take to develop final recommendations (Healthcare IT News, 6/16).
The committee will accept public comment on Tuesday's initial recommendations until June 26 (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/16).
Initial Guidance
Jonathan Teich, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the work group's initial recommendations prove that the committee values health IT systems that "improve quality, safety, efficiency, access and coordination of care."
He added that although some specific details might change, the recommendations offer health care providers "a good sense of where things are going" on which EHR systems could qualify for incentive payments.
Blumenthal added that providers will have sufficient opportunity to submit their input on the recommendations as the committee works to develop a final draft (Commins, HealthLeaders Media, 6/17).
Concerns
Roger Baker, CIO of the Department of Veterans Affairs, noted that the draft recommendations do not include language on privacy, which he said should be a "critical piece" of plans to adopt EHR systems (Brewin, Nextgov.com, 6/16).
Gayle Harrell, a committee member and former Florida state legislator, called the draft recommendations "an aggressive model," adding that meaningful use "will be difficult to achieve, and I am afraid we are setting ourselves up for failure if we don't take smaller bites of the apple."
Neil Calman, president of the Institute for Family Health, said it might take longer for new health IT adopters to achieve the criteria by the specified dates. He said, "Even if the technology in 2015 could do everything," the users of the system "won't be able to."
Some work group members suggested that officials could shift the timetable to accommodate physician practices that adopt the technology at different times. However, Tony Trenkle, director of CMS' E-Health Standards and Services, rejected the proposal, saying "there has to be the same criteria and the same timeline for all" (Buxbaum, Government Health IT, 6/16).
Final Word Goes to CMS
Although the policy committee's meaningful use recommendations are non-binding, CMS likely will take the group's suggestions into consideration when issuing a final definition.
CMS expects to release a draft rule on federal incentive payments, which will include a meaningful use definition, by the end of the year (Healthcare IT News, 6/16).
The agency will then allow for a 60-day public comment period before issuing a final rule in early 2010 (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/16).