HHS Releases Health IT Strategy Draft

Some doctors have argued that the risks and costs of shifting to EHR systems far outweigh any possible benefits, but EHR advocates say the U.S. patient information management approach is slow, clumsy and antiquated.

Federal programs are supposed to provide financial incentives for physicians and eligible hospitals that make “meaningful use” of certified EHR systems. The eligibility criteria for the incentives are supposed to get tougher as time goes on.

In the technology strategy plan objective “accelerate adoption of electronic health records,” which is part of the government’s broader objective to “Achieve Adoption and Information Exchange through Meaningful Use of Health IT,” officials mention private payers in Strategy I.A.8.

Agencies should “work with private sector payers and provider groups to encourage providers to achieve meaningful use,” officials say in that section. “The federal government will support the efforts of private payers and private provider groups to encourage their networks of providers to achieve meaningful use. Some major payers have begun to implement incentive programs that will work in parallel with the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and utilize meaningful use objectives. These programs have the potential to play a role in expanding the number of providers who achieve meaningful use, and may also provide incentives for providers who are not eligible for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.”

Comments on the plan are due April 22.

Other health information technology coverage from National Underwriter Life & Health:

• Feds Post Final EHR Certification Rule
• Aetna to Buy Medicity for $500 Million
• Health Care Goes HITECH
• PPACA: Feds Issue Electronic Health Record Regs
• Feds Issue Electronic Health Record Draft