Leading health IT experts came to Capitol Hill to brief staff and other attendees on important state and federal policy issues. Moderator Neal Neuberger, Executive Director, Institute for e-Health Policy www.e-healthpolicy.org emphasized that there are scores of issues related to the health IT field that still need to be revisited.
This list includes issues related to reimbursement, federal investment in health IT, telehealth, mobile health, medical homes, underserved and rural areas, available contracts and grants, behavioral health, infrastructure demands, home care, licensure across state lines, privacy and security, training the future workforce, and competently dealing with “big data”.
HIMSS www.himss.org is able to measure progress in the health IT field by collecting data from thousands of institutions so that industry and others can have access to valuable information, according to Rich Hodge, Director Congressional Affairs at HIMSS. The information available from HIMSS Analytics databases has proven to be a valuable tool.
Last year, the HIMSS Analytics Mobile Technology Survey was released covering the impact of mobile technology in healthcare organizations. It shows that most providers to the survey on using mobile technology are most often using laptops and work stations, however, use of the tablet computer is expected to increase in future years.
Hodge also mentioned that HIPAA www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy, which is nearly sixteen years old is not up to date. For example, the law doesn’t contend with mobile devices nor the benefits that can be obtained from aggregating data.
He also discussed how both the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Veterans Administration (VA) are using systems that need to be interoperable to better serve the military and veterans. DOD and the VA are totally aware that they need to develop and use an interoperable system and are now actively working towards this goal.
An update on the progress and today’s role that telemedicine plays in healthcare was presented by Gary Capistrant, Senior Director Public Policy for the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) www.americantelemed.org.
He pointed out, “Many states are experiencing a mixture of arbitrary requirements and disparate payment systems which has made it difficult for the states to rapidly move forward to serve their state populations effectively in terms of healthcare.”
To help describe where telemedicine gaps exist in the states, ATA has published two documents describing each state and their complex policy issues related to telemedicine. The two documents are titled “50 State Telemedicine Gaps Analysis”.
The first document deals with coverage and reimbursement issues and compares telemedicine coverage and reimbursement standards for the 50 states. The other document reports on professional licensure portability and practice standards for providers using telemedicine in each state.
Leslie Krigstein, Acting Director, for the College of Health Care Information Management (CHIME) http://chimecentral.org discussed some important issues. One area of concern is patient matching.
As she explained, “Very often people through various circumstances change their names which is commonplace today. However, it becomes very difficult with many people facing changes in their circumstances to always accurately and efficiently match patients with their data. This sometimes can result in a major threat to patient safety.”
CHIME is also pleased that Meaningful Use was added as a component to the recent SGR bill passed by the House. She also referred to H.R 270 recently introduced to continue the use of a three month quarter EHR reporting period for healthcare providers to demonstrate Meaningful Use for 2015.
As for the importance and need for interoperability, Krigstein mentioned that Congressman Michael C. Burgess MD. (R-TX) included his ideas and priorities on interoperability in the 21st Century Cures initial discussion document. He has worked extensively on such projects concerned with neurological research that makes it essential for physicians to have access to materials and interoperability standards need to be developed for EHRs.
Krigstein also mentioned the need for a robust code to deal with the delays in the national implementation of ICD-10 codes. This delay has caused grave financial hardship and has increased uncertainty for hospitals and the health system in general.
Lastly, it is equally important for providers to have the use of a national information sharing infrastructure that can’t be breached. This however, will require more private and public incentives and for leaders in our country to proactively invest in cybersecurity.