All posts in category Public Policy and Health IT

Draft TEFCA Needs A Lot More Work

TEFCASince the release of the Draft Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) on January 5th, EHRA volunteers from the Standards and Interoperability, Privacy and Security, and Public Policy Leadership Workgroups have been reviewing and discussing the document. Together, they drafted EHRA’s comments, which were submitted this week to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

As EHR developers, we support the goal to provide nationwide interoperability using networks as important building blocks, and believe TEFCA has the potential to dramatically improve interoperability.

However, the draft TEFCA overreaches, neglects important details, and doesn’t consider the practicality or potential unintended consequences of the policy. We strongly recommend that ONC review stakeholder feedback and publish a revised proposed draft for another round of feedback, before finalizing the policy.

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by EHR Association on February 26, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Health IT Regulation, Interoperability, Public Policy and Health IT

Posted by EHR Association on February 26, 2018

https://ehrablog.org/2018/02/26/draft-tefca-needs-a-lot-more-work/

Reflections on EHRA, Past and Future

By Mark Segal, PhD, FHIMSS

Mark Segal Morocco

Mark Segal welcomed ‘retirement’ by exploring Morocco with his son.

Late in 2017, I left GE Healthcare via an early “retirement” opportunity. Retirement is in quotes but that is a story for another day; suffice it to say that I intend to remain active in the digital health policy world.

One of the biggest changes with my departure from GE is that I also left the EHRA Executive Committee, on which I had served in both elected and ex officio capacity for years. This was a double whammy of many fewer conference calls per day.

My involvement with EHRA, wearing many hats, has been one of the most important and satisfying aspects of my professional life. (more…)

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by EHR Association on January 15, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in Case Studies and Personal Stories, Public Policy and Health IT

Posted by EHR Association on January 15, 2018

https://ehrablog.org/2018/01/15/reflections-on-ehra-past-and-future/

FDA Health IT Guidance Is A Good Start, But More Clarity Is Needed

By Shari Medina, MD

This month, the FDA issued long-awaited guidelines EHR tablet graphicon the agency’s implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act in regards to Clinical Decision Support and the FDA’s intent to exercise enforcement discretion for many types of patient-facing software, mobile applications, and software which have not obtained ONC certification.
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by EHR Association on December 19, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Health IT Regulation, Patient Safety and Health IT, Public Policy and Health IT

Posted by EHR Association on December 19, 2017

https://ehrablog.org/2017/12/19/fda-health-it-guidance-is-a-good-start-but-more-clarity-is-needed/

Improving EHR Usability by Reducing Regulatory Burdens

it is our experience that clinicians_ frustrations with EHRs are often less about the technology, and more about using it not simply for patient care but to fulfill regulation-driven dIn 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…)

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by EHR Association on November 3, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Delivery System Reform, Health IT Regulation, Meaningful Use, Public Policy and Health IT, Usability and Clinician Experience

Posted by EHR Association on November 3, 2017

https://ehrablog.org/2017/11/03/improving-ehr-usability-by-reducing-regulatory-burdens/

Celebrating the Value of EHRs During National Health IT Week

National Health IT Week 2017

Today begins National Health IT Week, a nationwide awareness week focused on the value of health IT.  EHRA is honored to be a National Health IT Week Partner, and proud of the contributions that EHRs make every day toward improved patient care in the U.S.

Recently, the advantages of EHRs were in the spotlight in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida. Headlines like “Electronic Health Records Rise Above Harvey’s Floodwaters” and “EHRs at Houston hospitals remain resilient against Hurricane Harvey” lead into stories about how EHRs contribute to effective continuing care in disasters. (more…)

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by EHR Association on October 2, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Interoperability, Partner Sites, Public Policy and Health IT, Usability and Clinician Experience, Value of HIT

Posted by EHR Association on October 2, 2017

https://ehrablog.org/2017/10/02/celebrating-the-value-of-ehrs-during-national-health-it-week/

To Improve Patient Access to Data, Providers and Developers Need Clarity on Regulatory Requirements, Not a Focus on Compliance and Penalties

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.HA blog quote

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.

(more…)

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by EHR Association on September 13, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Health IT Regulation, Interoperability, Meaningful Use, Public Policy and Health IT

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/

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