New This Week on HealthIT.gov

New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

• RFI on HIE Webinar
• New HIE resources on HealthIT.gov
• New HIE study
• App challenge winner
• National Learning Consortium
• Rural HIT and vets

Vacation time is here for many of us, but here at ONC we are continuing to focus our attention on health information exchange.

The highlight of this week was a discussion about ways to strengthen the business case for health information exchange. We hosted a joint ONC/CMS webinar on the policy levers that drive HIE and talked about some of the ideas we heard from you about delivery system changes that can spur exchange of personal health data. For those who missed the webinar, we have a link to the audio and the power point slides, so take a look when you get a second.

New HIE resources on HealthIT.gov

In that same vein (accelerating HIE) we have launched a new page on HealthIT.gov that tracks all the work in which ONC is engaged to help hospitals, doctors, labs, clinics and other providers exchange and use patient data in a meaningful way. The new page has numerous resources and links to our paper on Principles and Strategy to Accelerate HIE. The new page also highlights guidance to states on how to implement “super-utilizer” programs for Medicaid providers and links to content from CMS about the State Innovation Model  Awards program. There is also a link to CMS and OIG rulemaking that could extend and modify the physician self-referral and anti-kickback rules governing the donation of EHR software and services, which you might find useful.

One clarification from the HIE webinar this week is also worth noting. As part of the HIE acceleration strategy, ONC will ask the Health IT Policy Committee to explore the potential and scope for long-term, post-acute care and behavioral health voluntary certification programs that could increase EHR adoption, interoperability, and exchange. To be clear, however, no final decisions have been made.

New HIE study

On Monday ONC published new research in Health Affairs that suggests real progress on HIE. The research indicates six in 10 hospitals “actively exchanged electronic health information with providers and hospitals outside their organization in 2012.” We have a link to our new study on HealthIT.gov so read it!

App challenge winner

This week Adam Wong (@adamkwong) announced our latest app challenge winner: Medable.com. The team at Medable.com, lead by Dr. Michelle Longmire, developed the Together app that helps cancer survivors coordinate their care using their mobile phones. Among its many functions, it allows a patient's care team, from different organizations, to answer questions and chat securely with the patient. Read more about the Crowds Care for Cancer App Challenge on the HealthIT Buzz blog.

National Learning Consortium (NLC)

Get all the detailed information and resources you need about Meaningful Use Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) through the US Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK).  This guide will walk you through how to navigate this valuable tool: US Health Information Knowledge Base (USHIK) for Clinical Quality Measurement.

To view other NLC resources, visit the EHR implementation lifecycle steps.

Rural HIT and vets

Partnering with the U.S. departments of Education and Agriculture, ONC announced a push to help small rural and critical access hospitals in Mississippi get wired. The Mississippi project is part of a larger pilot spanning five states (i.e., IA, KS, IL, MS and TX). Expanding on this announcement, Leila Samy, ONC’s Rural Health IT Coordinator (@LeilaSamy) said: “These pilot projects give us an opportunity to work toward meeting advanced health IT needs of rural veterans by enabling them to have access to more coordinated care in their local communities. We are also aware of rural health IT workforce development and rural economic development issues, so we are joining forces with our partners to expand access to funding and broadband technology that is necessary for rural health IT adoption and health information exchange among CAHs, rural hospitals and the mental health clinics that are often run by these safety-net hospitals.”