What's Happening in Health IT In This Issue

• Cybersecurity Twitter Chat
• Enhanced Oversight and Accountability Rule
• Quality Payment Program and Health IT
• Quality Payment Program – Upcoming Webinars
• Quality Payment Program Final Rule MLN Connects® Call
• A Record to Rely On: A Workshop on the Intersection of Electronic Health Records, Health Law, Payment, and Oversight
• Patient-Generated Health Data Pilot Program Underway
• “You Never Want to Go Back”: The Promise of Health IT
• Federal Advisory Committee Schedule October 17-21

Cybersecurity Twitter Chat

As National Cybersecurity Awareness Month comes to a close, ONC will be hosting a Twitter chat (#CyberAwareChat) on Thursday, October 27 at 1pm ET. The chat will cover security best practices, breach prevention tips, ransomware, and other cybersecurity topics. Anyone interested in helping make sure they are keeping health information safe and secure should join us to share what tips on what you’ve found effective and to learn from others’ best practices. 

Enhanced Oversight and Accountability Rule

Last week, ONC issued a final rule that emphasizes the importance of protecting public health and safety, while also strengthening transparency and accountability in the ONC Health IT Certification Program. Read “ONC Health IT Certification Program: Enhanced Oversight and Accountability.”

More resources:

-       Press Release

-       Blog Post

-       Fact Sheet

Quality Payment Program and Health IT

CMS has announced a final rule to implement key provisions of the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) in a new program called the Quality Payment Program. The Program advances Medicare’s value-based transformation for hundreds of thousands of physicians and other eligible clinicians by tying these payments to quality patient care. A number of the provisions in MACRA directly relate to the use of certified EHR technology and health IT, including the Advancing Care Information performance category under the Quality Payment Program.

 Visit the Quality Payment Program website and read our new fact sheet highlighting the critical role that health IT plays in this program. 

Quality Payment Program – Upcoming Webinars

CMS invites you to join a webinar on October 26 at 2:00 PM ET, on the MACRA final rule with comment period. The webinar will provide an overview of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentive payment provisions under MACRA, collectively referred to as the Quality Payment Program.

 Quality Payment Program Overview

-       Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016

-       Time: 2:00 to 3:00 PM ET

-       Register: https://engage.vevent.com/rt/cms/index.jsp?seid=530 

Space for this webinar is limited. Register now to secure your spot. After you register, you will receive an email message with a dial-in number and webinar link. Please note, you will not be able to share your participant information because it will be unique to you.

Quality Payment Program Final Rule MLN Connects® Call

-       Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

-       Time: 1:30 to 3:00 PM ET

-       Register: MLN Connects Event Registration

-       Target Audience: Medicare Part B Fee-For-Service clinicians, office managers and administrators; state and national associations that represent healthcare providers; and other stakeholders.

 Space may be limited, register early. During this call, learn about the provisions in the recently released final rule; participants should review the rule prior to the call. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

A Record to Rely On: A Workshop on the Intersection of Electronic Health Records, Health Law, Payment, and Oversight

ONC is holding a 1-day workshop on Tuesday, November 29 in Washington, DC focused on the use of clinical documentation—as captured by EHRs—in legal, payment, and oversight contexts. The workshop will bring together panels of experts to discuss the current landscape around how EHRs have been used as a record in the legal environment and for purposes such as medical documentation, claims support, audit trail records, and fraud identification.

 Additional registration information for in-person attendance and webcast access will be forthcoming.

Patient-Generated Health Data Pilot Program Underway

Under a new contract with ONC, Accenture Federal Services selected two pilot projects to inform a white paper that will identify best practices for the effective use of patient-generated health data (PGHD). As part of the first project, Validic will test personalized care leveraging remotely-collected PGHD across patients in partnership with Sutter Health’s diabetes-focused research study.  TapCloud LLC is working with AMITA Health on the second project to gather PGHD across several medical conditions such as orthopedic surgery, stroke, behavioral health, and kidney transplant. The white paper and pilot demonstrations will in turn be used to develop a future ONC PGHD policy framework.

“You Never Want to Go Back”: The Promise of Health IT

On Friday, October 14, 2016, Dr. Vindell Washington delivered a keynote address at the Association of Health Care Journalists’ (AHCJ) Journalism Workshop on Health Information Technology in San Francisco, California, discussing how ONC is working to unlock health data to build the foundation for a wide variety of health innovations. Read Dr. Washington’s remarks as prepared here.

Federal Advisory Committee Schedule October 17-21

Thursday, October 20

11:00am – 12:30 pm EST: Standards: 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory Task Force

Learn more: http://bit.ly/2e3qCPh