HIT

Subscribe to HIT

On March 27, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a $1.65 million competition to accelerate development of AI solutions in health care. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes challenge seeks innovative, AI-driven solutions that can predict unplanned hospital and skilled nursing facility (SNF) admissions and adverse events.

The challenge is a…

On April 10, ONC released its Report to Congress on Health Information Blocking (the “Report”).  Here is a brief summary of the report, the full text of which is available here.

ONC has stated that its views health information blocking as frustrating the goals of HITECH and the Meaningful Use initiative.  ONC defines information blocking as conduct which:

  1. Interferes with the ability of authorized persons or entities to exchange electronic health information; and
  2. is done knowingly with the intent to block information exchange; and
  3. is not justified by reasonable business, technological, or public policy reasons.

ONC recognizes that there may legitimate reasons why EHR systems are not interoperable.  The Report focuses on the non-legitimate reasons, and highlights the following behavior:

  1. Contract terms which restrict individuals’ access to their EHR;
  2. Charging prices or fees for data exchange, portability, and interfaces which make exchanging EHR cost prohibitive;
  3. Developing health IT in “non-standard” ways which may increase the costs of sharing health information (particularly when interoperability standards have been adopted);
  4. Developing health IT in ways which may “lock in” users or their data, leading to fraud, waste or abuse, or otherwise impede innovation in health information exchange.

The Report is careful to explain that ONC would weigh such practices against legitimate considerations whether they are technological, regulatory, or economic in nature.Continue Reading ONC Releases Report to Congress on Health Information Blocking

On March 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule (CMS Proposed Rule) detailing the policies it will introduce during Stage 3 of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. In tandem with CMS’s publication, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) also published a proposed rule (ONC Proposed Rule) providing a new edition of health information technology (HIT) certification criteria. The proposed rules are intended to work together in streamlining the establishment of an interoperable nationwide health information infrastructure.
Continue Reading CMS and ONC Announce New Proposed Rules for Stage 3 of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program and HIT Certification Criteria