Meaningful Use Stage 3 (MU3)

See the following -

5 Health IT Pieces Of Congress Agenda For 2015

Staff Writer | Government Health IT | January 6, 2015

With Republican majorities poised to take control of the Senate and House of Representatives, the 2015 Congress is expected to address several health IT programs. Although controlling spending and promoting free enterprise remain GOP tenants, the approach by Congress to various health IT issues will vary...

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CHIME, HL7 Applaud ONC Road Map, JASON Task Force Recommendations

Dan Bowman | Fierce Health IT | October 16, 2014

Health industry groups expressed optimism following the Oct. 15 meeting of the federal government's Health IT Policy and Standards committees to discuss a draft interoperability road map unveiled by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.  In particular, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and Health Level Seven International (HL7) viewed the road map as a step in the right direction...

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CMS Inclusion of API’s for Stage 3 Meaningful Use Rule is the Right Decision

One of these rules, the decoupling of EHR certification and meaningful use brings some hope to those looking to build upon established EHRs and other health databases. Prior to this, there has been a very tightly held belief that EHR systems would contain the answers needed to fulfill all governmental regulations, something that has not been shown to be the case. EHR’s are becoming very important tools for healthcare delivery, yet their regimented, and for the most part proprietary data storage models, do not allow for easy customization to meet the needs of our patients and the various healthcare professionals dependent upon them for day-to-day management of patients.

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Crash Test Dummies and Electonic Health Records

EHR vendors are quick to say that the upcoming stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements are too burdensome, that they are too difficult to complete, and they are not necessary. (see this article for example). Many EHR vendors would say let market forces take over and the Health IT industry will heal itself. The big business interests of the Healthcare industry may cry wolf (and lobby hard) against the meaningful use program and its significant enhancements to the usability program because they don’t want to spend the extra time and money to provide a healthcare system that truly follows a safety-enhanced design philosophy.

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Creating Beth Israel's FY16 Information Systems Strategic Plan

I recently wrote about the process of setting FY16 Clinical Information System Priorities for the next year. That project is proceeding well and in parallel I’ve created my own contribution. I do not want to influence the stakeholder consensus at all, but members of the IS Governance committee asked for my opinion. Here’s my thinking...Each year, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Information Systems works with business owners to support BIDMC annual goals with information technology tactics. This ensures that the mission of BIDMC is supported by suitable operational tools. From 2012-2015, all hospitals in the US were compelled to focus their attention on Meaningful Use, ICD-10, the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, and the Affordable Care Act. Since those projects are nearly completed, it is important for BIDMC stakeholders to enumerate the new technology priorities which will best support their activities in the coming year. Read More »

Hospital CIOs: ONC Leadership Exodus Raises Questions About Federal HIT Priorities

Dan Bowman | Fierce Health IT | October 24, 2014

Hospital CIOs expressed concern that the sudden announced departures of National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo and Deputy National Coordinator Jacob Reider potentially leave federal health IT efforts in limbo...

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Interoperability: Can It Really Happen In 10 Years?

Mike Miliard | Government Health IT | December 16, 2014

With electronic health records now in place among hospitals and medical practices, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT embraced its new mandate in 2014: getting them to talk to each other...

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JASON Task Force Says Stage 3 Must Be Less Stringent

Mike Miliard | Government Health IT | October 6, 2014

Meaningful use stages 1 and 2 have failed to foster interoperability "in any practical sense."  That's the contention of Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, and David McCallie, senior vice president of medical informatics at Cerner, co-chairs of ONC's joint HIT Policy and Standards Committee JASON task force...

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JASON Task Force To ONC: Consider Delaying MU Stage 3 Incentives

Marla Durben Hirsch | Fierce EMR | October 14, 2014

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT should narrow Meaningful Use Stage 3 to focus on interoperability and "assertively monitor" the transition to public APIs but implement only "non-regulatory steps" to catalyze the transition, according to ONC's JASON task force...

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Notes on the August Meeting of the HIT Standards Committee

The August HIT Standards Committee meeting focused on the work ahead to accelerate interoperability.   It’s no longer about Meaningful Use, it’s about Meaningful healthcare information exchange. I offered my opinion about the work ahead.  ONC is in the middle of regulation writing for Meaningful Use Stage 3, so the standards work of the next 10 weeks is not going to be incorporated into the NPRM. Read More »

On the Need for Human-Centered Design in EHRs

Health information technology (HIT) has become the hottest political issue in Washington. The healthcare industry in the United States is facing a crisis as medical facilities have spent hundreds of billions of dollars implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems, yet patients and the physicians and nurses that care for them are seeing few benefits. Congress has been holding hearings focused on detailing the problems and trying to write legislation that will provide a solution to the crisis. The HIT interoperability bill drafted by Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) is one example. These are welcome first steps. However, none of the bills currently before Congress, and none of the hearings, are addressing the two most important issues facing medical providers today. These are lack of EHR usability, and the inability to have a patients’ entire medical record at the point of care.

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ONC Scraps Proposed 2015 Edition EHR Testing Criteria

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | September 10, 2014

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has abandoned its proposal to create nonbinding testing and certification criteria intended to prepare EHR vendors for coming requirements for electronic health-record systems.  In a 187-page final rule leased Wednesday, the ONC formally scrapped the plan for a voluntary 2015 Edition of EHR testing and certification criteria...

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Patient Smart Cards: The Key To Protecting Patient Data?

Akanksha Jayanthi | Becker's Hospital Review | January 7, 2015

A new research paper from WEDI, the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange formed by HHS in 1991 that serves as an advisor to the agency, examines the feasibility and usability of "secure identity tokens" as a means to protect and secure patient data...

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Public APIs Getting Ready For Prime Time

Neil Versel | Healthcare IT News | November 18, 2014

At the American Medical Informatics Association's annual symposium today, developers and backers of public application programming interfaces talked about how the standard could speed interoperability with add-on apps to enterprise EHRs, and help make those bulky systems more nimble...

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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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