What's Happening in Health IT

In This Issue

Today is time for all the little ghosts and goblins to come to your door to trade tricks for treats. All we have to offer are treats, so check out what's on tap!

New case studies about ACOS and health IT

Just this morning we posted a new report that takes a look at what some communities have been doing to leverage health IT to support value-based payment initiatives. The paper looks at how stakeholders in Bangor, Maine and Austin, Texas have made significant IT investments to support providers making the transition away from the current fee-for-service delivery system. Alex Baker offers a summary of the paper in a new blog post.

ONC Update Blog Post

After being tapped to become the Acting Assistant Secretary of Health to lead HHS efforts to fight the spread of Ebola, Dr. Karen DeSalvo penned this blog post along with Acting National Coordinator Lisa Lewis. Read more on the HealthIT Buzz blog.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule Week of Oct. 27

Tuesday
The Health IT Policy Committee's (HITPC) November meeting is virtual, beginning at 10am. Get the details on HealthIT.gov.

Wednesday
The HITPC Interoperability & HIE Workgroup meets at 10am. This is followed at 3 pm by theHealth IT Standards Committee's Transport & Security Standards Workgroup. The agenda and meeting materials are scheduled to be released prior to the meeting, so check back.

Thursday
The HITPC Strategy & Innovation Workgroup meets at 9am. Watch for the agenda and meeting materials to be posted prior to the meeting.

Friday
Beginning at 1pm, the HITPC Implementation, Usability & Safety Workgroup meets. The dial-in information will be posted prior to the meeting along with meeting materials etc., so stay tuned.

CMS Webinar on the 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) Flexibility Rule

Join representatives from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Monday, November 3rd, from 12pm to 1pm ET for a webinar on the 2014 Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) Flexibility Rule. This presentation will cover guidance and instructions on how eligible professionals who have been unable to fully implement 2014 Edition CEHRT for an EHR reporting period in 2014 due to delays in 2014 Edition CEHRT availability can use the rule's flexibility to report for 2014.

Register now to participate in this webinar. Once registration is complete, you will receive a follow-up email with instructions on how to log-in to the webinar. Space is limited, so register now!

Attn. Informaticists! Check Out These Lessons from the Field

Next Wednesday, Nov. 5, we are hosting a webinar that with you can hear from the Texas Health Resources team about the lessons they learned in responding to the recent Ebola public health challenge in Dallas. During the 90 minute webinar, they and other experts will answer questions and share lessons and best practices in how they have used health IT to address public health challenges.

Wednesday- November 5, 2014 1:00 – 2:30pm EST

Register today at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2609781370661039105. Lines are limited and we expect this webinar to fill up quickly.

Fed Summit On Materials and Adverse Effects

Join a meeting of federal partners who are working to develop a strategy to help inform a standardized method, agreed upon in the health-care community, to best represent allergies, and related adverse reactions, across the spectrum of substances in food, medications, vaccines, biologics, etc., drawing upon the work of standards groups and related expertise. The Materials Summit will convene at the USP (former the United States Pharmacopeia) in Rockville, MD November 5, 6 and 7. Register and learn more about this three-day meeting!

Quality Data Elements (QDEs) Correction

USHIK corrected an issue where certain Quality Data Elements (QDEs) were incorrectly linked to multiple Value Sets. Only negation rationale attribute QDEs from the April and July 2014 releases of electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) were affected.

For these QDEs, USHIK indicated the correct linkage to the correct Value Set as well as an extra, incorrect linkage to an additional Value Set. For example, a QDE associated with CMS2v4, "Risk Category Assessment not done: Medical reason contraindicated" was correctly linked to the "Medical reason Contraindicated" Value Set; however, the Value Set "Adult Depression Screening" was incorrectly linked to this QDE as well. There are not errors with eCQMs, QDEs or Value Sets; this issue consisted only of an extra, incorrect Value Set linkage for a particular subset of QDEs.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, please use the Feedback mechanism on the USHIK website.