Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT)

See the following -

Closed Records, EHR Decertification and the DoD

In anticipation of House of Cards Season 4, and with all due respect to the show’s creators, I think real life is giving us a perfect plotline that includes politicians, corporate interests, their lobbyists and a big fat government contract. Maybe Francis and Claire have me seeing conspiracies everywhere, but it seems a chain of recent health IT events have created intrigue in what is historically our staid, conservative industry. Follow the timeline with me and decide for yourself if I’m hearing black helicopters.

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CMS Extends Hospital 2014 Meaningful Use Reporting Deadline

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | November 24, 2014

The 2014 meaningful use reporting deadline for eligible hospitals and CAHs is now set for Dec. 31, 2014...

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CMS Promoting Interoperability Program: A Public Health Perspective

Well, here we go again. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has now released a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), titled Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2019; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Quality Payment Program; and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program...As this NPRM was released, the CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, published an open letter to doctors which is focused on reducing the burden on doctors so they can spend more time with physicians. HL7 has begun a similar initiative on reducing clinical burden. So the key question is: Does this NPRM go far enough to reduce provider burden in the spirit of Dr. Verma's letter?

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Congress Dishes Out HIT Budgets, Interoperability Probes

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 22, 2014

Ten years after the creation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, amid record partisan discord, lawmakers are trying to address problems they see in the direction of health IT’s evolution...

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Halamaka Takes a Deep Dive on the MACRA NPRM

As promised last week, I’ve read and taken detailed notes on the entire 962 page MACRA notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) so that you will not have to. Although this post is long, it is better than the 20 hours of reading I had to do! Here is everything you need to know from an IT perspective about the MACRA NPRM...What is the MACRA NPRM trying to achieve with regard to healthcare IT? The MACRA NPRM proposes to consolidate components of three existing programs, the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Physician Value-based Payment Modifier (VM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program for eligible professionals (EPs), creating a single set of reporting requirements. The rule would sunset payment adjustments under the current PQRS, VM, and the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for eligible professionals...

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ONC EHR Reporting Program RFI: A Public Health Perspective

On August 24, 2018, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a Request for Information (RFI) related to the EHR Reporting Program. This RFI is required by the 21st Century Cures Act and its primary purpose is to gather ideas and suggestions related to how ONC might provide better information about Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT). Apparently, the initial intention was to create a "star rating" like the type used in Consumer Reports to use to rate EHRs, but that seems to have been abandoned in favor of some kind of measurement system. But it is far from clear exactly how this would be done.

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Stage 3 Meaningful Use – Objectives and Measures Summary

Last Friday (3/20/15) the ONC released the proposed rule for Stage 3 Meaningful Use (MU3).  Whenever this type of document is released, I find it useful to summarize the objectives and measures from the background and details into a more concise format.  It was tedious work, but in the end it saves me paging through a 301 page document. I figured that if I found it useful, others might as well, so I posted the summary on the Clinical Architecture blog.  Our mission is to help evolve the clinical architecture of the healthcare industry.  A big part of that has to do with terminology, since terminologies are the language of healthcare solutions.  These Meaningful Use initiatives are fundamentally about how we share and use terminology.  Understanding the planned objectives and proposed measures allows us to provide feedback to the ONC and help our partners prepare for what is coming.

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Understanding Effect of EHR Usability on Clinical Workflows

Sara Heath | EHR Intelligence | August 26, 2016

As EHR use becomes ubiquitous in the healthcare industry, questions about EHR usability come into play. Read More »

“Shock,” “Dismay,” And Stage 2 Of Meaningful Use

Jeff Smith | Healthcare Informatics | September 9, 2014

Sentiments of “shock” and “dismay” crowded my inbox at 5:00 pm a few weeks ago as healthcare CIOs reacted to a final rule modifying timelines and certified EHR definitions related to meaningful use in 2014.  These sentiments were tied to one, very specific provision that had nothing to do with program year 2014...

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