Accelerating e-Prescribing

CCHIT to Offer Limited Certificate

According to Government Health IT, the Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) recently indicated that it would move ahead with its plans to offer “more limited, modular” certification of electronic health records so providers could get a jump start on health IT purchases under the economic stimulus plan. CCHIT said it would hold a “Town Call” Web conference Sept. 3 to go over its “new paths to certification,” which involve offering preliminary certification for individual EHR components, such as electronic prescribing or computerized physician order entry software that meet the “meaningful use” conditions of the stimulus law.

“We are concerned that providers could not achieve meaningful EHR use in 2011 if they wait until spring 2010 – the expected date of HHS final approval of requirements – to begin adopting this technology,” said Mark Leavitt, CCHIT’s chairman. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) required that providers be meaningful users of EHRs to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incentives beginning in 2011.

In addition to limited certification, CCHIT said it would continue to offer comprehensive certification of EHRs for different clinical settings that meet the terms of meaningful use.  The Department of Health and Human Service’s Health IT Policy Committee, chaired by national health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal, has recommended that providers be required to purchase EHRs, or components of those systems, that are certified for a minimum set of measures of meaningful use.

The committee would not require CCHIT’s more comprehensive certification, but CCHIT said it would continue to offer it. The Health IT Committee also recommended that more organizations be able to certify systems in the future once a method was developed to approve them. 

The stimulus package required that providers be meaningful users of their electronic health records systems to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incentives beginning in 2011. HHS, which expects to publish an interim final rule in December, will not finalize details for meaningful use until early 2010.

CCHIT’s Sept. 3 Webcast will provide developers and vendors a chance to discuss details of the commission’s certification programs and the differences between the certification paths. CCHIT will also hold sessions Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in Chicago to educate vendors and developers on new application processes, certification and system test scripts. 

Grants Available for HIT Infrastructure

According to Reuters, the U.S. government announced grants of almost $1.2 billion to help hospitals and healthcare providers implement and use electronic health records. The Obama administration has made the overhaul of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system the centerpiece of its domestic agenda, including the use of technology to improve efficiency and cut costs.

The grants include $598 million to set up some 70 health information technology centers to help healthcare institutions acquire electronic health record systems and $564 million to develop a nationwide system of health information networks. "Expanding the use of electronic health records is fundamental to reforming our healthcare system," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, unveiling the grants with VP Joe Biden in Chicago.

The grants will be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and be made available in 2010, the statement said.

States at "Ground Zero" for Exchange of Health Information

National coordinator for health IT Dr. David Blumenthal told state Medicaid IT directors that they stood at "ground zero" in the health information exchange policy and technology hierarchy.  “This is in many ways ground zero for much of what my office and the Medicaid program and the federal health agenda have to accomplish,” Blumenthal told an audience of over 400 government IT officials attending the Medicaid Management Information Systems Conference in Chicago this week.  Dr. Blumenthal said states and local jurisdictions will be responsible for building the infrastructure on which health information exchange will operate. That means states also bear the burden of solving policy conflicts that will arise when health exchange transactions cross state lines.

States' success managing this jurisdictional “thicket” is essential to federal plans to finance a nationwide system of health information sharing.  “We won’t be successful unless you all take the initiative to find ways of allowing information to move across the jurisdictional boundaries that patients do not recognize when it comes to getting the care that they need,” Dr. Blumenthal said in recent remarks.

Dr. Blumenthal stressed that increasing social mobility required cross-jurisdictional care coordination. Citing a personal example, he said he routinely saw patients from other New England states when practicing medicine in eastern Massachusetts earlier in his career.

“Many of your states have medical markets that cross jurisdictions; so it’s going to be very important that you coordinate not only with the providers in your own communities but that you coordinate across state lines, difficult as that may be,” he said.

A good part of the difficulty stems from health information privacy protections that differ from state to state. Although the HITECH health IT funding law strengthened federal privacy regs, several states have imposed additional health information privacy requirements of their own, Blumenthal noted.

To assist in these efforts, Blumenthal said he hoped “in the very near future” to be able announce a “program or programs” involving $300 million Congress set aside in the HITECH legislation to provide states support in expanding heath information exchange.

Surescripts to Offer "The Nuts and Bolts of e-Prescribing" Webinar

Webinar To Be Presented on Tuesday, August 18th from 5:30 pm to 6:30 EST.

The eHealth Initiative, in partnership with Surescripts®, is presenting a series of webinars, entitled the “Nuts and Bolts of e-Prescribing”.

Our August 18th Webinar is designed to provide a general overview of e-Prescribing including:

• What is it?
• How does it work?
• How is it growing?
• How does it benefit clinicians, payers, pharmacies and patients?
• What type of systems can get practices connected.
• What questions should you ask potential vendors before you buy?
• How best to implement and use e-prescribing. 

In addition to a Surescripts representative, doctors that have successfully adopted and implemented e-prescribing in their practices will be on hand to speak to their experience.

Presenters include:

• Michael Hughes, Sr. Manager, Marketing Communications, Surescripts
• Dr. Steven Green, Garrard Clinic, Lancaster KY.
• Dr. Mark Earhart, Windridge Family Medicine, Watkinsville GA
  

The “Nuts and Bolts series of Webinars are designed to cover a broad range of topics related to adoption and implementation of e-Prescribing such as:

• How to Get Started
• Implementation Best Practices
• Physician Case Studies
• Health System/Large Clinic Case Studies
• Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Case Studies
  

These webinars are free for eHI members.  We always welcome the participation of non-members and all of eHI’s e-Prescribing webinars are open to outside participants for a cost of $50.00 per session. 

Click here to register for any e-prescribing webinar.