Bipartisan legislation referred to as the TRUST IT Act www.congress.gov that includes reforms from Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) www.whitehouse.senate.gov and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) www.cassidy.senate.gov, has cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee www.help.senate.gov .
The TRUST IT Act focuses on making health IT systems accountable for their performance in three key areas that includes security, usability, and interoperability. This legislation would establish a health IT rating system to be published online by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for HIT www.healthit.gov to enable consumers to compare certified health IT products on the key areas.
The rating system would be developed in close consultation with doctors, hospitals, consumer advocates, and IT security experts plus other stakeholders. The bill also establishes a process for healthcare providers, patients, and other health IT users to share feedback on how well health IT products perform.
“Not all health IT products work well, reports Senator Whitehouse. “A health IT rating system will give consumers a better sense of which products deserve their business and create an incentive for companies to innovate.”
Additionally, the Act would upgrade the federal certification system for health IT products by:
- Authorizing the Office of the National Coordinator to make publicly available information to show how certified HIT meets certification requirements
- Requiring the health IT developers to attest that they do not engage in certain information blocking activities as a condition of certification and maintenance of certification
- Authorizing the Inspector General of HHS to investigate claims of information blocking
The Act would also help doctors and hospitals improve quality of care for patients by reducing documentation burdens, allow non-physician members of the care team to document on behalf of physicians.
Another provision in the Act would support the certification and development of patient-centered health record technology so that patients can access their health information through secure and user-friendly software that may update automatically.