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The HIT Policy Committee’s Meaningful Use Workgroup struggled to reach consensus on key Stage 2 requirements, with some accusing the group of being timid in certain areas, while others characterized proposed requirements as unrealistic in the given timeframe. Specifically in the area of providing patients electronic access to their hospital visit summaries through a Web-based […]
It was not immediately clear, at least to me, that HITECH would have the effect it has. By that I mean it would utterly and completely transform the healthcare IT industry. It took me some time to realize that, through Meaningful Use, the government’s stipulations of what it would take to earn the incentive funds […]
The HIT Policy Committee’s Meaningful Use Workgroup will request public comment on specific points (highlighted in yellow) of its Stage 2 matrix in the next few days. During a meeting held to fine-tune the questions, workgroup members slogged through each of those points, often attempting to locate the usually sought balance of empowering patients and increasing safety on the one hand, with not overburdening healthcare providers on the other.
Despite eagerness to have formal recommendations in place, the full HIT Policy Committee this week balked at a proposal for the National Health Information Network’s governance structure and instead asked workgroup chair John Lumpkin, M.D, to flesh out some thorny details before it could formally vote on the issue. Those thorny details revolved around a portion of the program which called for the creation of a non-government organization (NGO) that would disseminate best practices and resolve problems faster than a formal government body could.
Most healthcare providers will be happy to hear that the federal health IT Policy Committee isn’t content with the proposed definition of what constitutes the meaningful use of e-health records. Though that doesn’t mean it’s getting any easier to qualify for the stimulus funds that will reimburse healthcare providers for EHR investments. That’s largely because […]
