Subscribe if you want to be notified of new blog posts. You will receive an email confirming your subscription.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.

Please check the captcha to verify you are not a robot.

Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

meaningful use

Tire Kickers Need Not Apply: 8 First Impressions of the Medicare ACO Rule

On March 31, CMS released the long-awaited “Medicare Shared Savings Program: Accountable Care Organizations” document (ACO Rule). Read the details here (strong suggestion: unless you’re working on your PhD in ACOs, start with the fact sheets).

There are many surprises. Here are eight first impressions on this 429 page tome:

The bar has been set high…very high.  Tire kickers need not apply.
Don’t expect to see many or any small ACOs.
Patients will be confused by ACOs.
Concerns over maintaining competition and avoiding antitrust are […]

Getting DIRECTly to the Point: The Role of the Direct Project in Fast-Tracking Health IT Interoperability

By Rich Elmore and Arien Malec. Rich Elmore is the Direct Project Communication Workgroup leader and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Allscripts.  Arien Malec is ONC’s Coordinator, Direct Project and Coordinator, S&I Framework.

A patient’s health records are no longer confined to a doctor’s office, shelved inside a dusty file cabinet. With the advent of the Nationwide Health Information Network, a framework of standards, services and policies that allow health practitioners to securely exchange health data, medical records digitized to be easily […]

Comments to ONC: PCAST HIT Report Becomes a Political Piñata

The PCAST Report on Health IT has become a political piñata. 

Early Feedback on PCAST 

Like many of my colleagues, I was taken aback by the release of the Report in early December 2010 — I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Response in the first week of release was: 

Limited. The first commentaries were primarily by technical and/or clinical bloggers. The mainstream HIT world had remarkably little initial reaction to the Report. 
Respectful of the imprimatur of “The President’s” Report and noting some of the big names associated with the […]

Updates on Proposed Stage 2 and 3 Meaningful Use Criteria

The Health IT Policy Committee has published proposed Stage 2 and 3 Meaningful Use Recommendations and they’re open for public comment until February 25.

I’ll share a couple of particularly useful and well written analyses and commentaries by colleagues.

Health IT guru and thought leader Dr. John Halamka writes about The Proposed Stage 2 and 3 Meaningful Use Recommendations in his blog.

This is a great article to get a thumbnail overview of all the proposed recommendations. John lists 38 criteria and provides a quick […]

Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Gardens or Open Platforms?

Will ACO (accountable care organization) IT models be walled gardens or open platforms?  i.e., will ACO IT platforms focus on exchanging information within the provider network of the ACO, or will they also be able to exchange information with providers outside the ACO network? (If the question still isn’t clear, click here for a further explanation.).

HITPC Meaningful Use Workgroup Offers First Draft of HITECH Stage 2 & 3 Objectives

At the December 13 meeting of the HITPC (Health IT Policy Committee), the MU (Meaningful Use) Workgroup proposed a first draft of HITECH Stage 2 and 3 objectives.

A full list of objectives for Stages 1, 2 & 3 is available in the PowerPoint presented to HITPC.

The proposed objectives contain a mix of items that are:

Unchanged from Stage 1
Similar MU criteria with higher implementation goals, e.g.,

Stage 1: CPOE for Rx orders 30%
Stage 2: CPOE for 60% of Rx, lab and radiology […]

Summarizing Early PCAST HIT Critiques: “Brilliant, but they didn’t do all their technical homework.”

Last week PCAST (The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) issued a major report — “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward”. 

The reviews are filtering in and I’m seeing two major themes: 

The vision is on target:  “extraordinary”, “breathtakingly innovative”.
These guys didn’t do all their technical homework. The range varies, but the message is consistent. 

Here are some early critiques of the PCAST report. Let the debate continue!

Is Physician EHR Adoption Getting Past the Penguin Problem?

Remember the penguin problem described by economists?

No one moves unless everyone moves, so no one moves. 

Overcoming the penguin problem has a lot to do with creating expectations. A recent writing by Dr. James O’Connor in Physician Practice expresses a voice from the physician community that I’ve never heard before.  His essay is entitled “Meaningful Use — Doctors Have No Choice”.

Webinar: Beacon Communities Reshaping Landscape for HIT and Population Health

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time — Presented by the Care Continuum Alliance

Federally supported “Beacon Communities” are at work now defining how health information technology will support accountable, evidence-based care in communities – especially for care of chronic conditions. Backed by $235 million in federal grants, 15 communities across the country are serving as Beacon Community pilots for eventual wide-scale, performance-based use of technology to improve our health care delivery system.

The goal of the webinar is to address

The fundamental nature […]

Care Coordination Metrics: One Can of Worms that NEEDS to be Opened

“Track who is on a care team — and share info with the patient.”

That’s just one of the summary recommendations coming from expert testimony given in a recent public hearing on how to improve care coordination through the use of health information technology. The Meaningful Use workgroup and Quality Measures workgroups are now wrestling with how to translate this recommendation into meaningful use criteria for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.

Seems like […]