All posts in category Health IT Regulation

HTI-1’s EHR Reporting Provision Puts EHR Developers in the Middle

By David Bucciferro, Chair, EHR Association

In previous installments of this five-part blog series, we examined the EHR Association’s overarching concerns with ONC’s Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing Proposed Rule (HTI-1), as well as concerns with the transition to USCDI v3, proposed requirements related to Decision Support Interventions (DSI) and Predictive Models, and Patient Requested Restrictions. In this installment, we focus on our concerns with the HTI-1’s new Insights Condition and Maintenance of Certification Requirements provision.

According to ONC, Insights Condition fulfills a requirement in the 21^st Century Cures Act for transparent reporting by creating a program to measure the performance of certified health IT (CEHRT) under a Condition and Maintenance of Certification. The goals of the EHR reporting program are to 1) address information gaps in the health IT marketplace and 2) provide insights on the use of specific certified health IT functionalities.

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1 Comment

by EHR Association on June 8, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Health IT Regulation

Tagged ONC, Regulatory

Posted by EHR Association on June 8, 2023

https://ehrablog.org/2023/06/08/hti-1s-ehr-reporting-provision-put-ehr-developers-in-the-middle/

ONC Needs to Address HTI-1’s Burdens on Healthcare Providers, Health IT Developers

By David Bucciferro, Chair, EHR Association

While the EHR Association has long supported the goals of ONC’s proposed rule to advance interoperability, improve transparency, and support further access, exchange, and use of EHI, we have several serious concerns about the impact HTI-1 (ONC’s Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing Proposed Rule) will have on the industry if finalized as proposed.

Among the most significant are the insufficient implementation timeframes associated with various concepts included in HTI-1 and a failure to accurately consider the significant burden compliance would place on both provider organizations and health IT developers. Vendors need more time than proposed in HTI-1 to accommodate the substantial lift required to deliver safe, compliant, and high-quality versions of their certified products – 18-24 months is the commonly accepted necessary timeframe – while providers need sufficient time to implement, test and become proficient on that upgraded software.

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4 Comments

by EHR Association on June 2, 2023 • Permalink

Posted in Certification, EHRA News, Health IT Regulation, Health IT Standards, Interoperability

Tagged HTI-1, NPRM, ONC, USCDI

Posted by EHR Association on June 2, 2023

https://ehrablog.org/2023/06/02/onc-needs-to-address-hti-1s-burdens-on-healthcare-providers-health-it-developers/

Good Information Sharing Practices Released

By Leigh Burchell (Altera Digital Health), Vice Chair, EHRA Information Blocking Compliance Task Force

The EHR Association is committed to preventing information blocking and supporting efforts to share electronic health information to better patient care. As such, our Information Blocking Compliance Task Force collaborated over the past two years with stakeholders across the industry to address regulatory questions and further information exchange.

Our collaboration has produced “Good Information Sharing Practices,” a collection of best practices for health IT developers. The Practices are a practical list of proactive actions health IT developers can undertake to demonstrate their strong support for access, use, and exchange of health information and compliance with information blocking regulations. These include detailed recommendations on:

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Standards will Make or Break Efforts Toward ePA

By Janet Campbell (Epic), EHRA Public Policy Leadership Workgroup Vice Chair

This is part two in a four-part series examining the need for ePA, the barriers presented by the current environment, necessary capabilities, and functionality, and the EHR Association’s policy recommendations. Part one can be read here.

Streamlining the electronic prior authorization (ePA) process will require significant coordination and standardization across multiple domains within individual healthcare organizations, across dozens of health plans covering their patients, and across the health IT tools in use by every participant in the process.

Progress is being made by various stakeholders in terms of standards development. Notably, the Coverage Requirements Determination (CRD), Documentation Templates and Rules (DTR), and the Prior Authorization Support (PAS) implementation guides – all a part of the Da Vinci Project’s efforts to understand functional requirements, build consensus on a technical approach, pilot, and iterate – have resulted in significant progress toward the enablement of highly automated prior authorization workflows.

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1 Comment

by EHR Association on October 13, 2022 • Permalink

Posted in Certification, ePA, Health IT Regulation, Health IT Standards

Tagged Certification, ePA, Interoperability, Standards

Posted by EHR Association on October 13, 2022

https://ehrablog.org/2022/10/13/standards-will-make-or-break-efforts-toward-epa/

“No Surprises Act” Regulations Raise Concerns

By Leigh Burchell (Allscripts), Chair, & Janet Campbell (Epic), Vice Chair,
EHRA Public Policy Leadership Workgroup

The growth in high deductible health plans requiring patients to shoulder more of their healthcare costs and the lack of transparency in healthcare pricing has exacerbated the issue of patients left with surprise medical bills that many cannot afford to pay. The urgent need to address these serious issues is why the EHRA supported the No Surprises Act when it was developed and welcomed the regulations published last year as a foundation upon which it can be implemented.

However, we have several concerns about rulemaking to date as it relates to workability and the unnecessary burden it creates for industry stakeholders. To that end, we reached out proactively to regulatory agencies to provide feedback in four key areas that we believe – based on our member companies’ experiences and our ongoing advocacy for reasonable timelines and requirements – will be informative when it comes to additional regulatory actions expected later this year.

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The USCDI Curation Process: Why Stratify?

By John Travis and members of the EHRA Information Blocking Task Force

In our last blog on the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI), the focus was on USCDI as the policy ground for advancing federal interests for promoting high impact needs for health data, and USCDI’s import as a certification specification impacting developers of Certified Health Information Technology (CHIT). In this blog, we focus on how the evolution and curation of USCDI impacts the efforts of health IT developers and implementers to “stay current.”

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EHRA Blog

All posts in category Health IT Regulation

HTI-1’s EHR Reporting Provision Puts EHR Developers in the Middle

ONC Needs to Address HTI-1’s Burdens on Healthcare Providers, Health IT Developers

Good Information Sharing Practices Released

Standards will Make or Break Efforts Toward ePA

“No Surprises Act” Regulations Raise Concerns

The USCDI Curation Process: Why Stratify?

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