New This Week on HealthIT.gov

New This Week on HealthIT.gov

Governance

ONC is using a newly announced program to foster collaboration with groups already involved in governance of health information exchange to encourage the continued development and adoption of policies, interoperability requirements and business practices. Late last month the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released the Exemplar Health Information Exchange Governance Entities Program Funding Opportunity. The Program will help:

• increase the ease of electronic health information exchange,
• reduce implementation costs, and
• assure the privacy and security of data being exchanged.

This work will support and advance the efforts of existing governing groups which will benefit consumers and providers by allowing health information to securely flow between unaffiliated healthcare organizations.  The program is one of the multiple activities for governance of nationwide health information exchange that ONC is engaged in.
 If you are interested or have questions, please call in to a teleconference ONC will host Jan. 7 at 2:00 pm EST. To join the teleconference, please call 800-369-1896 participant code 3024154.  Materials for the call will be posted at http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/exemplar-hie-governance-entities-program.

For additional information about the Exemplar Health Information Exchange Governance Entities Program and to access the funding opportunity announcement please see:

http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/exemplar-hie-governance-entities-program

Science and Standards

The word of the week was … Standards! So says ONC's chief scientist Doug Fridsma who wrote the first of many blogs explaining what ONC's Office of Science and Technology is working on.

Fridsma said: "Over the coming weeks, I'll update readers on what we are doing in ONC's Office of Science and Technology." This will include conversations about:

• What it means to develop an interoperable health care system;
• What the community is doing to advance the technical framework of meaningful use;
• The work being done to create not only a learning health care system, but a "health care system of learners;" and
• Exciting innovation work that is pushing the boundaries of how health care providers and patients interact.

Read the entire blog at: : http://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/

Meaningful Use Case Studies

We recently published a slew of Meaningful Use Case Studies, detailing the experiences of providers across the country as they their journey toward achieving Meaningful Use.  Each case study focuses on a subset of the Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements and includes key challenges and lessons learned in:

• Care Coordination
• Public and Population Health
• Patient and Family Engagement
• Quality Measures

For more data and information, visit the EHR implementation lifecycle steps and check out the National Learning Consortium (NLC).

Patient engagement workgroups forming

In an effort to engage patients and consumers and identify opportunities for ONC to strengthen the ability of consumers, patients, and lay caregivers to manage health and healthcare for themselves or others, our Federal Advisory Committees are forming a pair of new work groups: the HIT Policy Committee's Consumer Empowerment Workgroup and the HIT Standards Committee's Consumer Technology Workgroup.

Learn how you can get involved in the Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs).

CMS National Provider Call on Meaningful Use Stage 1 & 2

Registration is now open for a CMS-hosted National Provider Call on Wednesday, January 16 from 2-3:30 EST. The National Provider Call will provide an overview of the final rule and provide information about what you need to do to receive EHR incentive payments.

Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and professionals eligible for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are encouraged to join the call.

For more details: Eligibility Requirements for Professionals and Eligibility Requirements for Hospitals

Registration Information:  To get the call-in information, you must register for the call on the CMS Upcoming National Provider Calls registration website. Registration will close at 12pm on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so please register early.

Presentation:  The presentation for this call will be posted prior to the call on the FFS National Provider Calls web page. In addition, a link to the slide presentation will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the call.

Continuing education credit may be awarded for participation in certain CMS National Provider Calls. Visit the Continuing Education Credit Notification web page to learn more.