Speakers from Congress, HHS www.hhs.gov, Veterans Administration www.va.gov, Department of Defense www.defense.gov, and the private sector voiced their views at the HIMSS National HIT Week Press Conference on Capitol Hill held on September 18th in conjunction with the HIMSS showcase.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) http://whitehouse.senate.gov sponsor of the “Behavioral Health Information Technology Act” talked about the legislation he introduced to expand the types of providers eligible for Medicare incentive payments to include licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, and psychiatric hospitals.
Also, Eligibility for Medicaid meaningful use incentive payments would be expanded plus incentive payments to eligible professionals and hospitals would be allowed under Medicare Advantage plans.
He reports, “The U.S. spends two trillion in annual health expenditures which puts us way ahead of other countries while we lag in quality and outcomes so we need to close the gap by developing a robust health IT infrastructure.
Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) http://gingrey.house.gov notes, “It will take $25 billion to get to the point where this country has full interoperability. In Georgia, 78 percent of physician offices use electronic records but we still are faced with a fundamental lack of interoperability.”
Tennessee Representative Diane Black http://black.house.gov reported on the legislation that she introduced affecting EHRs titled “Electronic Health Records Improvement Act” (HR 1331). The Act would exempt certain eligible physicians in solo practices and physicians near early retirement age from applying the Medicare payment adjustment when not demonstrating EHR meaningful use for certain payment years.
Erik Paulson http://paulson.hous.gov is also responsible for several pieces of legislation related to health technology. He introduced the “Health Information Privacy Protection Act of 2013” and on September 18, 2014, in a bipartisan vote, the House passed legislation authored by Representative Paulsen titled “Protect Medical Innovation Act” (HR 523) to repeal the medical device tax.
Karen DeSalvo M.D www.healthit.gov with experience as a practicing clinician and National Coordinator for Health IT said, “Interoperability is the key issue in fully developing health IT.” She wants the health IT community to effectively provide for interoperability over the coming months and develop a nationwide interoperability roadmap.
Dr. DeSalvo reports, “As much feedback as possible will be included in the draft roadmap scheduled to be presented to Federal Advisory Committees for their input and recommendations in October.” She anticipates that an updated version will be posted for public comment in early 2015.
Both Colonel Al Bonnema MD, CMO for the U.S Air Force Medical Corps, www.airforcemedicine.af.mil and Dr Jonathan Nebeker, from the Department of Veterans Administration discussed EHR progress at both of their agencies. They are both pleased that the long awaited EHR proposal is out on the street and came after a great deal of discussion after DOD and VA abandoned plans to build a joint health records system.
Dr. Bonnema wants to see the development of the EHR prioritized so that patients can receive the continuum of care in austere battlefield environments and the military will be able to treat the sickest patients with integrated mobile medical devices.
The Vista Evolution Program published last March is central to achieving seamless interoperability www.osehra.org/sites/default/files/vista_evolution_program_plan_3-24-14.pdf with DOD and other healthcare partners”, according to Dr. Nebeker.