The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released its 10-year vision for health IT, setting its sights on one of physicians’ biggest concerns: achieving nationwide interoperability of electronic health records (EHR). The release comes after a relentless push by the AMA to improve EHR interoperability and usability.
While interoperability is a core element for delivering better care at lower costs and achieving better health outcomes, this goal has remained widely unrealized—despite years of work and billions of dollars in investment. In fact, most data exchange in the United States still occurs via fax.
The AMA has continued to call on the federal government to significantly restructure the EHR meaningful use program to focus on interoperability, electronic medication management and quality. The AMA has underscored this case in official comments, including:
- A comment letter on Stage 3 of meaningful use. The letter reiterates the need for scrapping the program’s all-or-nothing approach to meeting requirements and replacing it with a 75 percent pass rate for an incentive and 50 percent pass rate for avoiding a penalty.
- A letter to the ONC, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General. The letter opposes cumbersome proposed audits and outlines some of the most significant EHR issues physicians face.
- Testimony given by AMA President-Elect Steven J. Stack, MD, at a forum hosted by CMS. Dr. Stack pointed to the impact of EHRs on clinical documentation, coding and billing.
Responding to this advocacy, ONC chief Karen DeSalvo, MD, recently restructured the workgroups for the agency’s Health IT Policy and Standards Committees and is seeking more input from practicing physicians to better inform the agency’s work.
Interested physicians are encouraged to apply by June 30 to serve on a workgroup. Applications can be submitted via the ONC’s application database. Workgroup members typically meet virtually twice a month for at least three hours per month to deliberate and make recommendations to their respective advisory committees.
The AMA will continue pressing both CMS and the ONC to achieve the national priority of EHR interoperability. Read more about the AMA’s ongoing efforts to improve EHR technology and the meaningful use program.
