In a recent post on the Allscripts Blog, Leigh Burchell, Chair of the EHRA Public Policy Leadership Workgroup and EHRA Opioid Task Force, shared her perspective on policy issues surrounding social determinants of health. She notes that, “it is generally accepted that there is a correlation between social determinants of health and patient outcomes.”
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Posted by EHR Association on July 23, 2019
https://ehrablog.org/2019/07/23/health-it-and-social-determinants-of-health/
In a speech last month, CMS Administrator Seema Verma expressed her desire for CMS “to focus on patients first.” To do this, she said, “one of our top priorities is to ease regulatory burden that is destroying the doctor-patient relationship. We want doctors to be able to deliver the best quality care to their patients.”
We applaud Administrator Verma for leading this effort to reduce regulatory burdens on healthcare providers. As regulatory requirements for data collection from clinicians directly through the EHR have increased, it has become increasingly more challenging to maintain focus on the data essential to direct patient care. (more…)
Posted by EHR Association on November 3, 2017
https://ehrablog.org/2017/11/03/improving-ehr-usability-by-reducing-regulatory-burdens/
By the EHR Association Executive Committee
Recently, a blog post appeared on the Health Affairs website* painting a gloomy picture of patient access to their electronic health information and suggesting a new theory on how HIPAA can be used to accelerate expansion of interoperability.
Disappointingly, this timely blog post makes inflammatory and inaccurate assertions about EHR vendors, regulatory requirements, and progress made toward interoperable health records. It also seemingly advocates for a “gotcha” system of penalizing potential missteps by providers and developers, which is the wrong approach to encouraging information sharing.
EHR developers provide tools to help our customers care for patients and increase these patients’ access to their health information. The assertion that individuals “struggle to get their information out of EHRs in an electronic format” overstates the situation and does not reflect progress made. Although the extent of exchange is not yet where the healthcare industry collectively would like it to be, interoperability is growing quickly between providers, as well as between providers and patients.
Posted by EHR Association on September 13, 2017
https://ehrablog.org/2017/09/13/to-improve-patient-access-to-data-providers-and-developers-need-clarity-on-regulatory-requirements-not-a-focus-on-compliance-and-penalties/
We recently saw the release of the 732 pages of the CMS Stage 3 Meaningful Use Proposed Rule and ONC’s Proposed Rule on 2015 Edition Certification. The EHRA Meaningful Use and Certification Workgroups have been gearing up to review and comment on these rules for a while so we have already started looking at the eight proposed objectives and 68 proposed certification criteria.
The scope of what is proposed for certification in this NPRM goes beyond what is proposed to be part of the Meaningful Use program, so other EHRA workgroups are also focused on reviewing the material pertinent to their areas of expertise. We’re committed to detailed review and developing EHRA’s responses for submission by the May 29th deadline.
Our work depends on the deep expertise of EHRA members and their users! We strongly encourage your involvement. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from the insights of industry experts in our educational calls, discussions, and consensus based positioning. Participating in EHRA’s work will give you an advantage when working on your own company’s feedback. Also, you’ll be well positioned to engage your users in what the new proposals might mean for their practices and to encourage them to participate in the public comment process.
Posted by ewest123 on March 30, 2015
https://ehrablog.org/2015/03/30/meaningful-use-stage-3-is-here-and-were-ready/
(July 14, 2014) Read EHRA Chair Mark Segal’s blog post on how he sees regulators responding to persistent requests from the private sector and a variety of stakeholder organizations (including EHRA) to design Stage 3 of the meaningful use incentive program to build on lessons learned from Stages 1 and 2, and focus on interoperability and alignment of quality measures and reporting across government programs.
Posted by ewest123 on July 14, 2014
https://ehrablog.org/2014/07/14/is-federal-regulation-of-health-it-going-to-ease-up-to-allow-for-more-innovation/
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